


Hooked on Him

by i_die_for_descendants



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Descendants (Disney Movies) RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 26,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21838708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_die_for_descendants/pseuds/i_die_for_descendants
Summary: What if on that fateful day when her head had been doused in shrimp Uma had run into Carlos De Vil and recruited him into her own gang instead of Mal's? The Isle provides new problems and mysteries before unexplored, for the pirate crew. Carlos may have found a way off the isle but time is running out, will tensions rise or will the barrier fall once and for all?
Relationships: Harry Hook/Carlos de Vil
Comments: 36
Kudos: 206





	1. De Vil or Devil?

**Author's Note:**

> This is entirely non-canon and i understand not everyone pairs these characters together but for the interest of this story they are together. There is some blood and gore mentioned but not too descriptive.  
> I do not own descendants or anything relating to the franchise / disney.

_Mal reached behind her back and dumped baby shrimps all over Uma's head. Turned out Mal had scampered back up on the docks just in time to see the goblins unloading the latest catch from the barge. Furious at her friend for laughing at her bad luck, Mal decided to create a little bad luck for herself._

_Uma screamed._

_And screamed._

_And screamed._

_The blue hair girl ran off trying her hardest to hold back her tears, but her vision was becoming blurry and it had gotten harder to see what was in front of her. Due to this she collided with a small black and white hired boy sending them both flying back._

_"_ _You should learn to move out of the way, you runt!" she yelled at him wiping her tears_

_"_ _Well you should learn to wash your hair, squid face!" the boy showed a brief flash of fear across his face but quickly hid it behind a mocking grin. Uma couldn't help but laugh, she'd made one enemy today, she could do with an ally._

_"_ _You're the De Vil kid, right?" she looked him up and down "clothes kinda give it away"_

_"_ _Carlos"_

_"_ _Uma" she said putting out her hand, Carlos shook it._

_"_ _Ursula, right?" Uma nodded "smell sorta gave it away"_

_Uma had to hold herself from pummelling the little runt, Cruella would not be happy about the loss of her personal slave, and Uma already had to slave away to her own mother never mind his as well._

_"_ _Let's go" she said walking ahead and waving him to follow._

_"_ _Where?"_

_"_ _My turf" she said turning around "you in or not?" Carlos stood hesitantly afraid to move, the blue haired girl began to walk away and almost jumped when she saw him now next to her, "quiet on your feet huh? Could come in handy" and the two walked away off the docks, they'd never admit it, but they were happy to have each other. The dirty, disease written docks seemed a lot calmer now with company, and the two were so immersed in conversation they could not hear the frantic cries of the boys mother looking him to hold her coats._

_**Three years later…** _

Uma, Harry and Gil sat waiting impatiently in 'Ursula's Fish 'N Chip Shoppe' for the young De Vil who was half an hour late.

"Where is he?" Uma asked spinning in her chair "he was supposed to be here ages ago"

"Give him a break love, you know what his ma's like" Harry reminded her, and they all sat in an uncomfortable silence at the thought.

As if summoned, or just ironic timing the young De Vil boy ran in, well at least he tried he had a slight limp slowing him down, but he was still quick, just not quick enough to be there on time and attend to Uma's already short patience.

"Holy shit De Vil what in Hades happened you?" his captain asked.

"Just some stupid kids playing around an unstable structure, freaking thing almost crushed me, got out with this" he said pointing to his leg

"Well hope you can still run cuz we got stuff to steal" Uma cried as she ran out and the others followed.

That night they returned to The Jolley Roger and emptied their loot into a half rotting chest they found, or rather stolen from Jafar's Junk Shop. They hadn't collected much, old jewellery, broken sea shells, things mainly for their outfits, their current ones were becoming slightly tattered and the best gang on the isle couldn't look like they were common nobodies, but they would still hold onto their current outfits when new ones were made, it got cold on the isle and they didn't have sunny skies or heating, this wasn't Auradon.

"You better get going before your mum freaks" Gil told Carlos looking at how dark it had gotten, as he handed Carlos his black and white jacket from the pile, they had made upon entering.

"Unless… you wanna stay?" Harry asked standing up to the surprise of the others, but Carlos shook his head, "I'll walk you then pup" he said as he began to walk off of the ship with the boy leaving the other two to sort out the rest of the loot.

"So, what really happened your leg?" Harry asked breaking the silence between the two "I asked about… not a broken structure in months" Carlos stayed silent and avoided eye contact with his crew mate "Did she hurt you?" Carlos stayed silent, giving Harry his answer.

Harry reached down to the boys trousers and pulled the leg up slightly, Carlos let out a hiss of pain. Harry shook his head and lead the boy to an old clothes shop ran by one of the smaller villain kids, "useless old dotes but lucky for us they have these" he said holding up scissors, threads, needles and other things.

"This'll hurt" he said cutting the fabric with the least rusty pair of scissors he could find, as he began sewing up and dressing the wounds, he chose not to clean it because the water probably had more chance of infecting it than the wound would have already faced due to the unhygienic-ness of the water, "I am gonna rip her head off by the tips of her unruly hair, no one touches my… I mean our… our crew mate" Harry corrected himself after a shocked look from Carlos

"Don't you'll make it worse" it was the first Carlos had spoken all night and to be honest, Harry was wishing he hadn't, it was hard to imagine this happening already, Harry didn't want to do anything to worsen the situation. Carlos was shaking, Harry had now noticed, and he lifted off his jacket and threw it over the boy.

"Oh, don't get all soft on me Hook" Carlos said with a smile as he wrapped the jacket tight to his skin "thank you" he mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?" a smirk appeared across his face, as he tilted his head to look at the boy.

"Yea I'm not repeating that" Carlos said as he walked to the gates of Hell Hall "See you tomorrow hook head" he called back to him as he walked through the gates.

"Whatever mutt mouth" Harry called back, he was glad Carlos was home safe, but the problem was Harry wasn't so sure how 'safe' his home truly was, if those scars on his leg were any indication, then Harry feared he may not see the boy the next day.

As the gate creaked closed, Harry could feel his heartbeat increase because the boy was now out of sight and reach, everyone knew to step onto the De Vil property once the gates were closed was a suicide mission waiting to happen. That house, if you could even call it that, was filled with unimaginable horrors, and then there was the reigning bitch herself, The Devil of Hell Hall, crossing her would lead to getting skinned, tortured or worse, it wasn't like she hadn't the experience, her past with animals and… Carlos apparently was more than enough proof of that. And so, Harry could only hope to see the boy the next day.


	2. Restricted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> resting on a rotting rock or a risky escape, both are risky, one is an option

The next morning Harry ran into 'Ursula's fish and chips' it was pretty empty, if there wasn't already cobwebs on a majority of the corners Harry would say the setting deserved it, it was like everyone had disappeared, the place was always packed at 11, it was "buy one get a free fish head" hour, everybody loved it, gangs would collect them and throw them at an unlucky enemy, but there was no one.

"Where the devil is everyone?" Harry asked Uma, as she appeared from the back of the shop

"Mom threw a tantrum, almost crushed one of em to death, so they scattered" she told him as she sat in her throne

"Speaking of Devil's where is the runt?"

"Didn't show up this morning, probably won't get out till late"

"What why?"

"Harry, he got home…. Past midnight"

"What is his ma the blimin' fairy godmother?" Harry's voice was getting more frantic

"if only... we could get off this rock" Uma smiled at the idea "but you know the rules, and what happens if he breaks them" the pirate captain shuddered at the thought of it

Harrys mind flooded with fear at the thought of what may have happened the boy, why hadn't he left him home sooner? Why hadn't he insisted the boy stay with them?

"Why do you care so much? I swear Hook if you're going soft, I will feed you to the sharks" Uma teased, but Harry was not in the mood and ignored her, the door behind them creaked, "look that's probably him now"

But unfortunately for Harry, the figure that walked through the door was the taller and more muscular figure of the son of Gaston. Not far behind him was the one they had been waiting for Carlos, with a noticeable cut across his face and with a much more bruised body than yesterday.

"Sorry I'm late" he spoke forcing a smile

"Don't worry I was late too!" Gil reassured him, breaking the focus away from Carlos' very abused body

"We're gonna go loot," Uma told him raising from her throne

"Who put you in charge?" Carlos snapped, normally Uma would threaten the boy, but his body seemed to be through enough abuse, and Uma was sure none of her threats could compare to the horrors the boy had already faced.

"Well when you get us off this hunk of garbage you can be in charge" was all Uma said

"So, should I start now or when we get off?"

"What are you talking about?"

"A gargoyle ship went missing from the docks, heard some kids talking about it on my way here" he told the captain

"So, it probably sunk," Harry said to try and relieve the tension

"Nope, you know how protective Gargoyles are of their stuff, they searched the whole docks, and nothing"

"So where is it?" Carlos' smirk answered her question "impossible"

"Not really" Carlos threw a book on the table "the barrier is weaker under the water due to the pressure, and if I'm right, there's a hole in it, that's how the ship got out"

"Great, except Gil cannot swim and Harry will get distracted by any of the crocodiles in the docks," Uma said shooting down the boy's idea

"not a problem" he opened the book "this is a history of the Isle, some hero who lives here kept it, it mentions catacombs which lead directly under the water to a cave offshore, if the barrier has a whole in it, the entrance and exits should open, only problem is I have no idea where they are"

"Didn't Dragon Hall's restricted library have a map of all the most dangerous places on the isle?" Gil interrupted

"Gil for the first time in your life, you're input was useful," Uma said as she walked to the exit "to Dragon Hall!"

The four walked through the entrance, the rotten doors made a loud creak as they pushed them over. As Gil and Carlos had gone to Dragon Hall before transferring to be closer to Uma and the crew, they knew their way around.

After picking the lock on the door of the restricted sections the four entered and closed it behind them. The room was filled with ancient-looking books, and the air had a strange chill to it, more prominent than the cold halls of the rest of the school, this chill was pure evil.

"Lets get the stupid map and leave okay?" Uma said rubbing her arms which were covered in goosebumps "Won't be easy" Carlos told her pointing upwards. As Uma looked up, she saw a black frame covered in thorns with an ancient map behind the glass "Those are midnight brambles, from the dark forest itself, one prick and its nap time" Carlos began to climb the bookshelves with the others, but Harry's arm rested on his shoulder

"Maybe you should sit this one out pup" he said looking at the boys, injuries, Carlos had no objection, he had no intention of getting hurt… well more hurt.

Uma and Gil climbed the bookshelves, on top of watching that they were not pricked by the Midnight Brambles, the had to watch their step, the shelves weren't exactly frequently cared to, they had so much rot that one wrong step could bring down the whole thing. The two carefully calculated their steps, even Gil was so concentrated that it almost looked like all the thinking was putting him in pain. They climbed higher and that's when Uma heard it the sound of cracking wood, she looked below her feet and then quickly to Gil, whose bookshelf collapsed below him causing the muscular boy to tumble down the air, the bookshelf was at least thirty feet high, a fall from that height would kill him. Harry and Carlos grabbed an old half moth-eaten sheet from the floor and held it below the boy, as he fell lower, they scrambled back and forwards to try and make sure they caught him. Luckily the boy fell into the tarp and would only get away with a couple of bruises.

Their joy did not last long though because not seconds after they caught Gil did the sound of a second bookcase collapsing stop their celebrations. As the bookcase crumbled the blue-haired girl left their sight. Once it had completely fallen, they all looked frantically for their captain, throwing old books and broken boards aside, hoping, praying for some miracle.

"Aww, you care" a voice from above them teased, as they looked up they saw Uma holding a rope hanging from the ceiling in one hand and in the other was the map, "well are you gonna catch me or would you prefer I had fallen off that bookshelf?"

With that the boys scrambled to grab the old sheet and held it below their dangling captain, "if I die, I swear on my mother's tentacles I will come back and haunt you all!" and with that she hesitantly released her grip and fell gracefully down, her coral hair flowing in the air, she had to hold her hat to prevent it blowing away. Eventually, she fell into the tarp and the four laughed about how close to death they were, well closer than the Isle's daily problems. The four huddled around the map looking at all the hidden places on the isle, Harry's finger lifted to the map.

"There they are…" he said in shock, the location was far from easy to get to, and the path was a suicide mission, especially for them.

"We're gonna die," Uma said shaking her head "I just scraped death, I won't be so lucky next time"

Carlos looked up at the map and saw the problem, the entrance to the catacombs was past Maleficent's castle, if they were seen she'd hand them from the pillars and place their heads on the spikes, but what choice did they have? Stay here and rot? They'd had 16 years of rotting; it was time to rise.


	3. Cry Me A River

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the catacombs first danger awakens

The plan was simple, sneak through the back alley's out of sight, then there was the main problem, going through Maleficent's Castle was the easiest route but the one that would pose the most danger to them, if anyone saw them, they were dead meat or sushi in Uma's case.

The four waited for the darkness to blanket the already dim sky of the Isle, Uma had reminded them that they weren't very liked on this side of the isle and spotting them wouldn't be hard. The four were not exactly subtle, Harry's guyliner and shiny hook could be seen from a mile away, Uma's coral blue and seashell decoration contrasted with the norm dressing, Gil was very easy to lose like a four-year-old on steroids and Carlos was the talk of the Isle, seeing him outside of his house was like winning a lottery, it only happened to the lucky few.

They all stopped in front of the rusted iron doors of the castle, ever since she had been turned into a lizard, her castle hadn't been well kept, her minions all left, unsure what do with themselves without her constant screaming, sometimes they could still be seen walking around the outskirts of the castle grounds, never daring to enter without her permission. Uma managed to break the unnerving silence.

"Let's go, if we're caught, we are dead" and with that, the four disappeared behind the large doors.

The castle was surprisingly full, nothing here had been touched, un-looted… it was odd, uncommon, it showed how much power the mistress of evil still had, but as much as Uma hated to admit it, it was not her mother the isle feared anymore, it was her wayward daughter that reduced the Commander of all the powers of Hell into a measly lizard.

Carlos stopped in front of a bookcase, Uma and Gil looked slightly uncomfortable, he guesses they'd had enough bookcases for the day. He traced his fingers along the books and stopped it on the book entitled 'Water and Wonderous Caves'.

"Subtle," Harry said with a smirk, Carlos pulled the book forwards and the loud sound of turning gears echoed through the room and the bookcase opened with a hiss. It took all four of them to pull it open fully revealing what appeared to be a hallway, but it was too dark to tell.

"Guys these catacombs hold the Isle's worst objects and creatures, they were deemed too dangerous even for us" Carlos recited from memory

"Must've been really bad if Auradon actually cared about us" Uma said, her voice sounding unsure "Well no turning back" she said holding her shell which began to glow causing the others to raise their eyebrows "we gotta see don't we?" she said taking the map off Carlos, and taking their first steps on the way to freedom, or death… preferably freedom.

They walked down the dim hall, the four jumped at the sound of the bookcase closing behind them, Uma was right, there was no turning back now. They followed the hallway until coming to a dead end.

"Great what now?" Harry complained, Uma held her shell around the room trying to find some indication as to what they should do next, as she held it lower, she saw a place in the floor that was not century-old stone like the rest but wood. Harry knelt down and pried the wood up with his hook, the light from the shell showed what appeared to be a ladder but not much else, there was no way of telling how far down it went, or what was down there. But, with the door behind them closed, they really had no other option and so they began to climb downwards. The further down they went, the colder it got and the light from Uma's shell appeared to be getting dimmer, almost as though the darkness surrounding it was sucking the light away.

When their legs had eventually hit the floor again, they looked at the surrounding area, the walls were covered with inscriptions and drawings, much like hieroglyphics but none of which that made any sense. They found two paths each looking as unpleasant as the other, their shared looks showed that none of them intended on splitting up. Gil looked closer at the two doorways.

"This one has a sun on it, Auradon's sunny so, it must be this way, right?" he wasn't wrong, sure enough, a circle with lines surrounding it, resembling a sun lay on the doorway, however, this didn't mean it was the right way. But they could only grasp at straws at this stage, and so for once, they all agreed that Gil's idea was the one to go with and ventured down the hall.

They all moved in silence, too afraid to say anything, they still had no idea what was down here, just that it was enough to get Auradon's attention, and that wasn't an easy task, making them care about the Isle? Unheard of. So, whatever was down here with them, was reason enough to keep them quiet.

But as they walked further down the hall whispers began to echo through the hall.

"Shhhh!" Uma shot back at them, but none of them were talking, and yet despite that the whispering remained and in fact grew louder the further they ventured down the hall.

At the end of the hall, Uma's light was not the only thing challenging the darkness, a white light beaconed from across the room, revealing a path with a doorway behind it. They walked towards it and the whispering increased, enticed by the object Uma drew closer to it and saw sitting on a pedestal a lantern, as she stood in front of it the whispers silenced, and a deep voice called out to her;

"There's my precious little starfish" accompanied by a deep laugh which echoed into Uma's ears.

"Mom?" The three boys looked at Uma puzzled, who was she talking to?

The whispers still remained in their ears and they couldn't make any of it out so who was she talking to? "You've made mummy so proud, finding a way off this rock" it echoed again

"Actually, that was Car- "

"Now now, don't hold yourself short, you are the captain, and doing a fine job of it too, you will make an excellent queen of the sea"

Carlos looked at the walls of the doorframe, they had similar writing and drawings, but these ones looked clearer like they wanted to be seen.

"Guys I don't think that was a sun on the doorframe" Carlos pulled at an old tarp covering the wall and as it fell to the ground he tumbled backward in fear, warnings had been written all over the wall, many in blood "Uma!" Carlos cried but she could not hear him, all she could hear was the praising voice of her mother.

"Now all you have to do is hold the lantern and you will rule all of Auradon!" her hands eased closer

"Uma No!" the three cried but it was too late, her grip tightened around the lantern.

Suddenly the room was lit, by the water surrounding them and they could now see why it had been hidden, the river around them appeared to be holding white ghost-like entities swimming through the water crying out… the whispering, it had been them, the souls. It was soon they had realized this was no ordinary river it was the River Styx.

"Any wonder this was hidden down here, if we touch it, we'll be trapped forever!" Carlos cried out "Uma we gotta go!"

Uma's eyes glowed with the same bright white light that the lantern appeared to have and when she spoke the lantern shone brighter with every word

"She's not going anywhere!" the familiar deep voice of Ursula cried through Uma, before whispering in a soft hushed voice "and neither are you"

Uma's body was lifted into the air and in that instance, the water around them began to move violently and souls began jumping out their claw-like hands outstretched, trying to grab their floating Captain.

"We have to get out of here now!" Harry cried, the others didn't hesitate they ran down the narrow path and pulled Uma to the ground, trying to break whatever trance she clearly was under, but nothing seemed t work, and the water was rising around them and the souls were only getting closer.

"Bad glowy thing!" Gil said throwing it on the ground, a deafening screech echoed through the room as it cracked and Uma gasped as though she had been short of air, as though she had been held under the water that was rising around them. They all ran past the lantern ignoring its calls.

"Harry… Harry…" the familiar voice of Carlos called to the young Hook

"Runt?" he turned confused, hadn't the boy just passed him?

"Harry! What the hell are you doing?" snapped him back into reality as the young De Vil who had run over to him pulled him to the end of the path, both having to duck and jump to avoid the clawed hands of the lost souls. As they reached the door the closed it behind them and could hear it banging as though a thousand fists were pounding against it, but nothing happened, and eventually, it stopped.

"Harry what in Hades were you doing?!" Uma yelled trying to catch her breath

"Never mind that" he replied because he was not sure himself "What was that?"

"The beacon of souls, it tells you what you wish to hear most to entice you and it steals your soul, pairing it with the River Styx is a terrible idea honestly, but I suppose they never thought the barrier would break to activate it again," Carlos told them

"Thanks for telling us ay?" Harry complained

"The book mentioned it, but it was supposed to be a myth… guess not"

"Well, at least it's gone," Gil said, looking particularly proud of his play in the destruction of the beacon. But Carlos shook his head.

"No, it'll rebuild itself, it'll take time, but it won't stay destroyed forever"

"On that note, let's go" Uma said "I heard my mom, saying we were getting off this rock and I am not letting her have another thing to hold against me, whether that voice was real or not" she marched off and the others followed her all but Harry who looked back at the door. If the lantern was supposed to 'entice you' in some way, then why had he heard Carlos? It didn't make sense. But that was the least of his worries, for now, they still had a lot further to go.


	4. Sleepless Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> harry is taking watch and carlos can't sleep

The crew marched further into the catacombs, the farther they walked the colder the air grew and the walls began to dampen, most likely due to the water they were under, they could only hope the roof would not collapse under they had enough bad luck that day, and Uma had almost died… twice. Nevertheless, all the walking and evading death had seriously tired them out and so they decided to make camp and sleep before they got into more danger, Harry offered to take the first watch.

Uma and Gil lay together, Gil's head resting on her shoulder, she was surprisingly cuddly for the big evil pirate captain act she put on, it was strange for Harry to see her this vulnerable, with her guard down. And then there was Carlos, who had his head rested on Harry's lap, his hair fell to his face and Harry pushed it out of his eyes, he looked so calm when he was asleep. But as the night drew on the young boy's face scrunched up and he began to fidget, he was having a nightmare, a common occurrence on the Isle but his appeared to be worse than others.

"Shhhh pup, it's okay," he rocked his leg up and down and the boy began to calm "I'll protect you"

"You couldn't hurt a fly hook," the boy muttered as he raised his head giving a sleepy giggle but as he looked down sleepily at where his head was rested, he soon realised his face was placed directly over the taller boy's crotch area, his face burned a scarlet red as he quickly got up and turned away causing Harry to laugh, he was cute when flustered… cute as in a taunting way was of course what he meant, like pathetic… the young De Vil wasn't cute…

"Wanna swap?" Carlos asked him, bringing Harry's focus back to reality, the younger boy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "doubt I'll get back to sleep now… not that I'd want to,"

"Wanna talk about it?" Harry asked him shuffling closer to the boy.

"I still see her… every time I close my eyes she's there" Carlos didn't have to say her name, it was very clear to Harry that he was talking about his mother, he felt bad for the boy, he was on the road to freedom, but he still could not escape that woman. After years of torment the image of that awful woman was permanently engraved into his brain.

"Hey, it's okay she can't get to you here" he reassured him wrapping his arm around the boy's shoulders

"No, not with you here to protect me" Carlos teased, giving him a playful punch

The two laughed and began talking, they were the least close of the group always rivalling to be first mate, Harry had gotten the official title, but Carlos had been there longer, and Uma trusted him more than she would ever trust Harry. They had been destined to fight from the beginning, they hadn't even called each other by their first names because of the rivalry. But in this moment, the past disappeared, they were no longer the two rivals who were forced to get along, they were Harry and Carlos, crewmates, friends, lo-…. Lookouts. Harry caught himself. They were lookouts. Although they were being so loud that if there was anything to look out for, they would probably have been the ones who attracted it.

And as the night grew longer, they grew more tired and the young De Vil found himself laying on the son of Hook's chest, sleeping soundly, the comfort was nice… even if it was from.

"Yo ho fiddly dee a pirates life is the life for me…" he sung in a hushed voice rocking side to side, rocking the younger boy as well. Carlos giggled, his singing wasn't half bad, the boy's thick Scottish accent had a strangely calming effect to it that Carlos had never noticed before.

"You're so stupid" Carlos laughed, the infamous Harry Hook was singing to him

After all of the things they had been through, collapsing bookcases, secret catacombs, soul stealing objects, this was the strangest thing that had happened all day.

"So, what did you hear from the beacon?" Harry asked, ever since he had heard Carlos' voice, he had been curious as to what the younger boy had heard. The memory flashed through Carlos' mind;

 _"Carlos, we did it"_ the voice of the young Hook rang through his ears, what was he talking about? They weren't even out of this hell hole yet.

It had taken Carlos all this time to realise that Harry had not been the one speaking to him, but what would he tell the boy? The thing enticing him most was him? That would be strange, it didn't make sense… even to Carlos, the two were supposed to hate each other and yet it was Harry's voice he had heard.

"I heard the king, begging for his life," Carlos said with a wicked grin, it was iffy, but it would have to do "what about you?"

"I heard you…" Carlos' heart jumped to his throat; he must've heard that wrong… right? Harry saw the boys concerned facial expression and quickly added "begging and pleading, Uma said I could feed you to the sharks"

That was right, Carlos had forgotten their rivalry and until he had said it so had Harry, the two shuffled apart and turned backs facing each other. The events of that night had meant nothing and as far as they were both concerned, they hadn't happened.


	5. Heated

The two were promptly awakened by a sharp pain in their ribcages, looking down they saw the pointy toed coral blue boots covered in seashells lying beside them. They now realised what had woken the two of them up, Uma had very clearly kicked them in the ribs after they could not be woken. Or she just felt like kicking them, the second option felt more likely if they were honest. She was upset, they could see it. Uma was still bitter due to her loss of power thanks to Carlos’ plan, which had almost gotten them killed several times. On the other hand the isle’s chances of death were far higher and occurred more frequently than the near-death experiences down here had. Uma hadn’t known it when she said it but she had “well when you get us off this hunk of garbage you can be in charge” it was an empty promise, she hadn’t ever considered he may actually find a way, but here they were – every step was one step closer to Auradon which had been the only thing keeping them going.

  
‘Gee with you two keeping watch I feel mighty safe’ she said to them in a mocking tone

  
‘I don’t they were asleep’ Gil said looking like he was in deep thought, but to be honest the three assumed that even thinking too much might cause the boy strain so they did not bother to ask him what he was thinking of.

  
The two boys got up, letting out a slight hiss from the pain in their ribs, it now occurred to them that Uma may have kicked them more than once. They knew they had to continue on, but they were physically and mentally drained, it felt as though they were back on the isle – starving and uncomfortable. They thought they were used to it but this time it hit them harder than ever. The mere idea, the hope of getting of that godforsaken rock had caused them to get giddy, excited, like little children and all at once they had forgotten about the lack of privilege their life normally had. They were not like Auradon kids, they were closer to the dirt beneath their feet than them. But that would all change, soon the shackles that once held them down would be the same ones they would use on the scum that was Auradon’s people. 

‘Ugh it feels like we’ve been walking forever’ Gil had complained and he was right, their legs were sore from walking and they feared that if they continued, they may die from exhaustion. They turned into the next room hours later and the entry behind them closed over leaving no trace of a gap.

‘You know if this that had happened me a week ago, I would’ve lost my damn mind’ Uma said shortly after, the three couldn’t help but laugh, even with the stress of this situation Uma still knew how to look after her boys, her crew… Carlos’ crew. Something about that didn’t feel right, like comparing the Isle’s food and Auradon’s – the same idea but not as enjoyable as it should be. Carlos had always struggled with Uma for control over the crew, but he was not there enough to be captain – his mother did not allow it and so Uma was captain. But now that he won it, he should feel celebratory excited even, but it was a bittersweet victory. He hoped the feeling would fade when they set foot in Auradon.

  
The room they now stood in was different than the other areas of the catacombs, there was a dry warmth in the air that was not present in the drafty continually chilled air of the catacombs. The four hoped it was a sign they might be getting closer to the sickeningly sunny skies of Auradon but they knew not to get their hopes up. The catacombs had not been pleasant to them before this, they doubted they would be now. The strange thing was they had been standing in this room for almost ten minutes and nothing remotely threatening had happened them, it was calm, too calm.

‘What is the purpose of this room?’ Harry complained taking off his leather jacket, Carlos noted his muscular figure and realised something he hadn’t before. Harry, while still defined, had lost weight. He now realised that although scraps were the norm, they usually got the best on their turf… and the most. They hadn’t had that down here; their food was limited and heavily rationed.

  
‘I believe it’s to make us mildly uncomfortable to see if we can deal with Auradon’s weather’ Carlos replied smirking at a rather annoyed looking Harry.

‘Oh he ha ho’ he mocked back

As Carlos went to reply he was met with a sound that quite frankly made him believe he had caught whatever mental problem his mother had, because in the room with them he heard a very faint. _Bark_.

And another one - _bark._

It was official; he had gone mad. His escape plan had driven him to be the exact thing he had hated… his mother. His blood ran cold. Had he seriously thought that? Did he hate his mother? He couldn’t. She was his only blood, put a roof over his head, she was family. So why couldn’t he believe that? Maybe it was because despite being his blood, she caused him to loose quite a bit of it through her torturous methods. Maybe it was because the roof she placed over his head was a small confined room with a leaky ceiling and no pillows for his bed. Or maybe it was because despite the lack of blood relativity Uma and Gil had felt more like family than she ever had and Harry… well he was more than family, wasn’t he? Because despite his sudden madness that had overcame him, he realised Harry was all he could think about, the thoughts of his mother fading. But maybe that was the madness? This feeling, these emotions, they had to be madness. Because the constant thoughts of Harry were driving him mad, clearly more than he had thought they were. To his surprise he hadn’t been the only one to hear it.

‘What was that?’ Uma asked, the barking growing closer to them

  
‘I hear it too’ Gil said looking frantically around him

  
The three’s gaze fell upon Harry.

  
‘What?’ he asked in reply to their accusing looks

  
‘You have a tendency to bark when excited Harry forgive us for the accusation’ Uma shot back

  
‘Why would I be exci-‘ he was cut off by the loud echoing bark ‘aha!’ he said joining the three in looking for the source of the bark and soon they found it.

  
The bark grew louder and the three placed their hands at the ready to pull out weapons if needed. But the closer the bark grew the less threatening it became and it changed to a sort of yap. To the surprise of the three a small black three headed dog ran up to them, it’s heads appeared to weigh down its body, it looked as though it may fall over. Drool was slipping out of the side of its mouth and on to Carlos’ shoe. He knelt down and looked at the black studded collar on the middle dogs neck – the only one with a name tag.

  
‘Hey guys you ever wonder why Hades only listens to tapes of Cerberus barking?’ he asked them

  
‘No way’ Uma exclaimed kneeling down beside him ‘well put me on a hook and call me fish bait’

  
‘He doesn’t look like a dog from the underworld, he looks so cute’ Gil said, his eyes widening and they couldn’t help but notice that he and the dog shared a similar expression.

  
‘He looks like a wee runt’ Harry mocked, the three heads growled at him, making an ungodly noise that even had Uma jump back.

  
‘Leave him alone Hook’ Carlos said pushing him back, Harry grabbed his had off of his chest. He knew the feeling of electricity between them was mutual as they stood there looking each other in the eyes.

  
‘I dunno what’s happening between you two but y’all better stop right now’ Uma said breaking the connection ‘we can’t afford you two beating each other up this far into this hell hole’ she looked down at the dog ‘no offence’

  
‘He’s still a little runt’ Harry said kicking him out of the way.

  
Harry didn’t like being told what to do, and he needed to blow off steam, Carlos knew that. But watching him hurt Cerberus brought back too many memories of the horror stories his mother told him of her cruel actions to animals… memories of the cruel actions she inflicted on him. Just because she could.  
The room had grown hotter, to the stage where even Uma, cold blooded as she may be, had to take her jacket off – there was no exit, no way out.

  
‘Hey guys?’ Gil said breaking the silence

  
‘What?’ Uma snapped letting out a loud sigh from the heat

  
‘Did Cerper-cus get bigger?’

  
The three looked to see what the blonde-haired boy was talking about and too their surprise he was right. The little dog had grown, its three heads now reaching their waists he looked more mature but still had that cute little puppy look in his eyes.

  
‘Aw look the little runt became a medium runt’ Harry teased and this time he did let out a bark, much to the annoyance of the dog. 

  
This time Carlos noticed, the more the dog’s anger grew the higher the temperature got the hotter the room now became. He know realised what this room was for.

  
‘Harry leave him alone!’

  
‘Coochie coochie coo’ he was not listening he was mocking the dog – flicking its nose enraging the dog further. The heat in the room grew drastically and the grown of the dog was drastically noticeable and Harrys smirk quickly faded as the dog now towered almost three times his height.   
‘Uh oh’ was the only thing he could manage to say


	6. Hellfire

The three turned to see what the other boy had done and were met with the terrifying gaze of the massive beast before them, the once puny pup was now the thing of legends, and Harry had caused it.

‘Way to go kelp brain’ Uma sighed as she pulled him back from the monster

‘It was an accident!’ he argued

‘So was bringing you!’

‘Guys!’ Carlos yelled, interrupting the two ‘ we have bigger problems’ he tried his hardest but he couldn’t help and smirk at the irony of the comment he had just made about the now enlarged canine.

‘glad you find this so funny runt’ Uma said as she turned in a circle, it was at that moment Carlos realised why. Cerberus had begun to circle them, most likely in attempt to stalk his prey… them. And Uma appeared to be adamant that she wouldn’t let him out of her sight, but Carlos feared to think of how long she could keep that up before dizziness caused her to collapse.

‘We need to spread out, we are too easy to attack when we are clumped together’ had impending death not been upon them, they might have questioned why Gil had actually made a good idea but he had been doing that quite a bit this trip. So without hesitation the four slowly backed away fearing that too sudden of a movement might cause the creature to pounce.

‘We all have weapons, right?’ Uma asked her crewmates, fearing they might need them

‘yes’

‘duh’

‘obviously’ Were the responses she was given, she admired Carlos’ ability to remain sarcastic even in the most deadly situations.

Like the one that was soon to befall on him when the black dog of death caught his gaze, she couldn’t be sure but Uma could have sworn it was staring directly at his fur, as though it knew what had happened to make such an item. Of course it could never have known the jacket was faux, that Carlos did not find fur appealing, it saw one thing, a hunter who needed to be hunted. Its sharp nails shining in the light as it ran towards him, Uma saw Carlos’ do something she never had before… he had frozen with fear, his face a pale shade of white.

Clang. Clang. Clang

Like the crat beast before him Carlos and his crewmates turned to see where the loud repetitive noise was coming from and there stood the young hood, beating his sword against a jagged rock that lay before him.

‘Heya runt, remember me?’ he asked banging at the rock more

The large dog bared its canines at the young villain, most likely remembering what he had done, the harm he had inflicted. And so not even Carlos could blame the large dog for charging right at him, large droplets of drool running from its teeth baring mouth. It charged right for him, and the young Hook’s confidence was now lost as he ran, he ran as fast as his legs could take him, but Cerberus was faster. The large beast stopped in front of him, once again barring those large teeth and growling in his face with such force that the boy could barely stand. It was over.

Clang Clang Clang.

That same noise, but somewhere else.

They turned to see a young De Vil hitting his swords together landing the beasts attention on him once again.

‘Carlos what’re ye doin?’ Harry asked, Carlos. His name. Harry had only called him that several times and had done nothing to hide the fear in his voice ‘

Harry shut up’, not the nicest reply to a mate who was voicing concern, but all the same ‘I’m going to try and talk to him’

The beasts attention lay fully on Carlos, this could go one way or the other, he hoped it would go one way rather than the other. ‘They left you down, here didn’t they?’

The beasts tensed jaw, loosened, its teeth no longer barred, ‘It wasn’t enough that they took him from you, they had to take you as well. And they just left you here, no friends, no company, hell you probably haven’t eaten in years! And that’s not fair’ and slowly but surely Carlos could see the dogs size diminishing. His fellow crewmates had come beside him once they noticed this.

‘They don’t care about us, do they? We didn’t do anything wrong yet we have to suffer, for crimes we haven’t even committed. They trapped us on a rock with no way out and no comfort’ Uma contributed, he could tell this wasn’t just to calm Cerberus down, it came from a place of personal bitterness, and Carlos understood. It was the reason they were down here after all, to get off this stupid prison.

‘You’re a good boy’ Gil added petting the dog, who now stood at a mere 2 meters tall and no longer looked like a threat, it shrunk in his arms, seeking the comfort of his touch. He could tell it had been a while since he had been scratched. Carlos smirked at the creature, this dog, now the size of a great dame, had almost killed him. As he looked closer, he could see a faint glow in the dogs eyes, so faint you would miss it if you didn’t pay attention.

The room flooded with darkness, and then a blinding light invaded his pupils. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust not only to the lighting but the colourful surrounding, he could see trees with fresh fruit hanging, colourful flowers lay in bushes. They were here. They were in Auradon. Carlos realised the young dog must have been the final passage, they were there, they were home. Or at least he was. The others were nowhere to be seen.

‘Guys?’

A scream answered his request and he turned to see the three on the edge of the sea bank, close enough to fall, and that’s what they had done.

He couldn’t quite explain what happened next, it was as though his soul had been lifted from his body to the edge with his friends.

He saw a sharp rock impaling Uma as the strong current pulled her under the sea. She could not swim, yet her arms were waving frantically as she descended further into the ocean, the sea creatures, the mermaids watching her sink, a hint of a smirk lying on their lips. Her hand reaching for him to take, yet she was too far, no matter how he kicked she was always to far. As she disappeared into the darkness his next horror awaited.

Gil had not fallen yet lay above, with a worse fate. The creatures of the wild had turned on him, the hunter was now the hunter. Savage beasts tore their claws into his bulging biceps and try as he might he could not push them off of him, as bared teeth bit into him, and flesh was torn. Carlos lost sight of the young boy, but the pool of blood that lay at the animals feet left little to the imagination. And they had left the worst for last.

On the sea bank stood harry, cornered by green scaly crocodiles, the sound of ticking breaking through the barrier the windy sea air provided. Their large jaws snapped ad caught and ate, yet Harry was not out of Carlos’ reach as the others had been and as he ran down, he saw they had left the boy, bloodied and dying, his hand had been dismembered. They had gotten what they had come for, the other hand of a Hook. Carlos dragged the boys bleeding body to the forest where he was delighted to see a young boy emerging, his toffee brown hair and golden crown gleaming in the light/

‘Thank goodness, the king’ Carlos muttered to himself ‘please you have to help my friend he’s hurt’ suddenly a sharp pain in the boys side rippled through his whole body, he saw the young king’s hand holding the blade that now lay in his side, ‘what are you?-‘ a second blade sliced through his throat as he fell to the ground laying on top of his friend’s corpse as he bled out onto him/

‘you shouldn’t have come here’ he said before turning away

‘CARLOS!’

the screams of his crew mates had returned him to the room he was once in

‘you okay? Harry asked him ‘you were in some strange trance’

Without answering them, Carlos pulled a small blade from his pocket and pierced it into the skin of the small dog

‘what the hell man, he was harmless’ Gil asked, as in shock as the others

‘just because something looks innocent doesn’t mean it is’ he spoke, remembering what he had saw.

At his feet lay the dark cloak, his hands wrapped around it as he threw it over his shoulders. In that moment the look in his eye was one that could only be mirrored to one other… his mother. The fur cloak added to Carlos’ the terror he had never inherited from his mother, as though the action needed to commit the crime, changed him, and in their eyes it had. The wall in front of them crumbled, revealing once again another pathway.

‘lets go’ he said calmly walking towards the entrance ‘now!’ his voice raised as the three continued to stand there in disbelief. Though they wouldn’t dare say it, they were no longer listening because of Carlos’ newfound captainship due to his agreement with Uma, but because they were terrified of him. They had lost both a beautiful creature and their best friend in that room, trading them for a cloak and a stranger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the Cerberus scene was so anti climactic, i had intended it to be more dramatic but couldnt figure out how to write it so insted you got that great vision from Carlos :) sorry this took forever to update, i have had exams and loads of school


	7. This Inhumane Beast

They followed behind him in complete silence not daring to utter a word, there was a chill in the air and not just the normal one from the draft they could only hope was from Auradon. No. This was different, and it began when Carlos pulled that cloak over his shoulders, his mother would be proud, which is exactly what scared them. Carlos could barely even speak about his mum, and now he was on the verge of becoming her, or at least he looked that way. Harry couldn’t explain it, but when he sliced the beast his eyes had a craziness in them that he had never seen before, not even from Cruella, was it enjoyment? No, Carlos would never enjoy it. Then again none of them thought he would do that in the first place, clearly it had to be done to open the door, but they never in a million years would have expected it to be Carlos.

‘we should stop here’ Uma finally broke the silence, of course it was her who else could have?

Carlos turned without saying anything, a cold blank expression washed over his face as he stared into her eyes, Uma looked right back at him but she looked unusually uncomfortable.

‘We’re all still pretty battered up after….’ She paused her gaze now shifting to the dark fur cloak around his shoulders ‘after the last room….’ Good choice don’t mention the issue, just tip toe around it so as to avoid any direct confrontation. She was clever. She was scared.

He nodded at her; he hadn’t said a word since. No excuse. No apology. Nothing.

The three congregated together, practically collapsing on to the floor as Carlos sat further ahead against the wall, just out of ear shot… they hoped.

‘What the hell just happened?’ Uma hissed gesturing to their silent leader, they turned to see him sharpening his blade against a rock ‘oh great he’s planning his next victim’

‘don’t be daft’ harry chimed in

‘what do you mean ‘don’t be daft’ harry? You saw what he did’

‘you know Carlos far betta than I do, if he did it, he had reason, you’re bound to know that’ she did, her silence confirmed it, as much as she wanted to complain about what happened she’d known him most of her life.

‘We’re never getting out of here are we?’ Gil said, looking rather defeated.

‘That’s the spirit’ Carlos’ voice piped up, he had been behind them, but for how long? How much had he heard? He didn’t look angry, at least if he was, he wasn’t showing it. Harry hoped that meant he hadn’t heard or that if he did, he wasn’t upset.

‘You guys need to lighten up’ a smirk now crossing his face, he looked happy, he looked like Carlos.

‘oh sweet light, I miss the sun’ Uma complained now lying on the ground, arms spread out.

‘And how could you miss something you never had?’ Carlos inquired arising a giggle from the group

‘Well even the dim light isle of the lost beats these stupid caves’

‘You won’t be saying that once we are in Auradon’ Gil said doodling a cartoon sun into the dirt beneath them

‘Yea… Auradon’ Carlos’ smile now looked different, more forced.

‘everything alright?’ Harry asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He now realised why Carlos had suddenly become more inviting to the group, his heavy coat had been left where he had been sitting before. Harry realised the fur coat may have been weighing him down, not only because of it massive size but also due to the way in which it had come into Carlos’ reach.

‘Yea just…’ he was hesitating, like his words were numbered, or he was running out of time, neither of which harry could understand, ‘just, the thought of that bright sun is giving me a sore head man’

Carlos knew he shouldn’t but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t help analysing his friends, taking in their every detail, the way they spoke, their little mannerisms that he had not noticed up to this point. They were all so flawed yet perfect in every way. Gil’s off-centre jaw, from the time he had gotten into a fight with Jafar’s son all those years ago, was perfect. Uma playing with her braids when she got nervous and thought no one was looking was like artwork coming to life. And Harry, the way he gripped onto Carlos’ shoulders out of concern, the way he cared, for all of them, but tried his hardest to hide it, was something all the most perfect Auradonians should be ashamed they did not possess.

‘I’m sorry’ was what caused their perfect moment to crumble, when those two words left his lips, all the laughter around him stopped.

‘Why’d you do it C? we know you had a reason but for the life of me I can’t find one’ Uma asked saying what they had all been thinking ever since the incident had occurred

‘I saw something, when I looked in its eyes… and I couldn’t let anyone else see those horrible things, because I really wish I hadn’t’

‘Well then thank you’ Uma said, shocking the rest of the group

‘T-thank you?’ Carlos said barely able to force the words out

‘Whatever you saw was so horrible that you had to kill that beast, you did it C’ she repeated ‘so it was obviously extremely bad, so yea thank you for not letting us go through that’ she placed her her hand and his knee. Carlos lost his cold exterior and pulled her into a hug, tears staining his pale face. Uma out reached her arm to pull Harry into the embrace and the two sandwiched Carlos into the hug.

‘Hey I want in!’ Gil said wrapping his arms around the three, and they sat there, for Hades knows how long. They just sat there, tears rolling down their faces. If the isle saw them like this they would be relentlessly mocked, and persecuted, expressing your feeling, unless anger or spite, was forbidden. And they all sat and wondered the same thing… how could their friends be so good at it? But as they knelt there, arms wrapped around each other, they realised they were not friends they were family. They finally got up from the hug, all of their sappiness had left their systems, and they decided they had been there long enough and it was time to go. Carlos pulled the cloak over his shoulders; the group fell silent. Almost as though nothing had happened. But it had. Carlos knew it had, because as he uttered the words ‘let’s go’ not only did the crew follow immediately, they walked beside him not behind him, he had missed it.

The further they walked into the catacombs the louder the sound had gotten.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

To their surprise Harry pulled the watch out of his pocket, only enhancing the ticking’s volume.

‘I thought your watch was broke?’ Uma asked looking over at the boy

‘That’s not the weirdest part’ he said turning the watch to them.

Sure enough Harry’s watch was ticking. Backwards.

The further they walked into the catacombs the louder the watch ticked and then, nothing. The ticking had stopped once they had come to a door, with an obscurely large handle that took all four of them to open. As they entered the room, like all the rest, the entrance disappeared behind them. As Carlos looked at the empty room, he was faced with their next adversary.

‘Oh for the love of Maleficent, not him’


	8. Purr For The Past

‘oh now now don’t go hurting my feelings’ a thick English accent echoed through the empty room as the door behind them shut but did not disappear.

The three looked up and saw exactly who he was talking about, a large horse chestnut tree sat in the middle of the room, its roots breaking into the concrete around them. Upon one of the many branches, he was perched. The Cheshire Cat.

‘what are you doing here?’ Uma asked scrunching her nose up at the feline. She never was a fan of cats, Carlos often thought it had something to do with their keen appetite for sea life.

‘same as you I guess, I got bored and began to explore!’ he clapped a cheery smirk appearing on his face, a sign that whatever was coming was not good.

‘Kitty?’ Carlos asked, the cat turning to him ‘you wanna tell us where the door is?’

Kitty waved his paw and the room became covered in doors of all shapes ad sizes, the walls, the roof, the floor all of it was covered in doors. Even some of the doors had doors. Classic Cheshire Cat.

‘Which one?’ he broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, the years on the isle had not been good to him, for as much as he was mad before his mental state only deteriorated as the years grew.

‘Cool’ Gil said trying to open one of the doors below him before Harry pulled him away from it, there was no telling what was on the other side of those doors.

‘Very funny puss’ Harry said jabbing his hook forward threateningly, it however, had no effect on the Cheshire cat who looked at his claws.

‘I thought so’ he replied

‘Ignore him kitty’ Carlos said lowering Harry’s hand ‘look we just need a door out of here’

‘Oh! Well why didn’t you say so?’ he waved his tail and a door appeared in front of them as the others disappeared

‘Thank you’ Carlos said opening it, as the four waved their goodbyes the door shrunk to nothing and their faces met a wall causing them to fall over.

‘That one never gets old!’ he said giggling at the four now lying on the floor, faces red and tempers rising.

They were starting to become annoyed with the cat, Carlos could feel it, he was too. The problem was that despite his jolly prankster exterior the cat was nothing to be messed with. He was beyond mad, and if you had gotten onto his bad side then there was little chance of escaping his grasp never mind his helping them. It wasn’t Carlos’ first rodeo with the cat, they had become quite close in his youth due to the inherent shared madness, the Cheshire cats own and Carlos’ mother.

**Five years ago;**

The young De Vil had snuck out of a hole that had been formed in his window, he had climbed down the drainpipe in an attempt to not wake up his mother. She had one of her legendary fits that day and half of the house had been damaged in the process, a lot of the items being thrown at Carlos, a small cut below his eye had shook the reality into the young boy, he couldn’t spend all of his days there, he needed something to fill the time. If not, his vision could become the least of his worries. The boy lifted a rag and wrapped it around his arm, the broken glass from his jacket had ripped his jacket and caused a cut to form. As he tied the rag around his arm an accented voice rose out of the darkness.

‘Now now, that will never do’ the boy turned to see the cat he would soon become familiar with ‘you must come and get that treated’

The cat lay on a rather plump cushion that lay on a board held by two of his henchmen. He was one of the better off on the isle, treated like royalty. Carlos decided to follow him, he thought it the wisest option when dealing with someone like this, don’t ask just do. The boy was through the alley to an entrance which lay behind an ivy-covered wall. He couldn’t help but smirk, it was a classic Cheshire Cat move – to hide doorways in plain sight.

The cat was lowered onto a throne like chair with a similar cushion and the henchmen gestured to a rather torn bean bag for Carlos to sit in. As he did, he was lowered into the bean bag. The feeling was somewhat terrifying, his yellow eyes reflecting down on the boy, he felt trapped as though he could pounce at any moment. Carlos couldn’t help but wonder if that was the point or if it was pure coincidence. It was hard to tell what was intended with him; he probably wasn’t sure himself.

‘I’ve heard of you, you know’ he purred smiling at the boy

‘y-you have?’ the boy questioned, ignoring all of his previous logic

‘yes, the young de vil with the absolutely bonkers mother!’ the cat let out a chuckle ‘we were destined to meet you know; I saw it in a dream’

Infront of them, one of the hench man had slid a bottle of white liquid, pink lines shining through it occasionally, the cork held a label with the legendary words ‘DRINK ME’. As it was opened however a rather pungent smell filled the room and Carlos tried his best not to gag. He now no longer doubted the cat was having ‘prophetic dreams’ the visions were probably induced by the offness of whatever had been in this bottle before it had gone off. The cat in front of him purred his into a bowl and began licking the liquid.

‘Not thirsty?’ he said looking up from his bowl, the boy shook his head ‘hungry maybe?’ the cat pushed forward a bowl full of what appeared to be stale cakes, their icing discoloured and cracked, he could make out the faint letter ‘EAI NE’ which he assumed to be ‘EAT ME’ a long time ago. The white-haired teen looked around the room, at the cakes and then the cat who had returned to his drink. He couldn’t help but feel sad, he didn’t deserve this, none of them did.

‘You’re judging me’ his eyes met the young boys

‘No I-‘

‘I understand, its nothing to be proud of’ a frown appeared on his face and Carlos thought himself lucky to be the only person the have seen a Cheshire Cat without a grin ‘but I hope you will understand, loneliness is not good for the mad’ his eyes were blank, no joy, no madness, nothing.

‘You don’t have to be alone’ Carlos said attempting to comfort him, he saw a bit of himself in the cat, they were both alone with lonliness, Carlos with his mothers and the cat with his own, no one should have to go through that alone.

‘But of course I do, why you are my first visitor in years and you are only here because you fear me’ he raised a paw and the door they had came through was opened by one of the men ‘you may go, it’s fine, I prefer the emptiness of a vacant room’

‘Well too bad, because I’m not going’ he said lifting the cake as he opened his mouth to bite it before the paw lowered his hand

‘Please do not eat those, they are quite retched’ the pair broke into a fit of laughter and could not find a reason to stop.

The next day the boy knocked on the door and was greeted happily by the cat who welcomed him in, as the door behind him closed he swallowed hard.

‘I brought you something’ he opened his bag and lifted out a red and black collar with a bell on it, the initials C.C engraved on it. It had been intended for Carlos a C for ‘Carlos’ and a C for ‘Cruella’ so he remembered who he belonged to. It however had not fit the boys thick neck and lay to waste in his room.

‘A collar?’ he raised an eyebrow, Carlos now tried to hide the gift fearing he had offended his new friend ‘no ones ever cared enough to give me a gift’ he smiled as he put it on and smiled that Cheshire Cat smile at him and Carlos couldn’t help but smile back. They were lifelong friends, or so they had thought.


	9. The Day On The Dock's

The collar no longer lay around the cats neck, not that Carlos could blame him. He lay on the tree his laughter quieting but the smile never leaving his face, his eyes were looking them up and down, they practically sparkled with mischief, they were only beginning and if the cat had his way they would never get out of here. 

  
‘Kitty that’s enough’ the white-haired boy raised his voice, helping a grateful Harry off the ground

  
‘Look who’s all grown up’ he chuckled as his body unravelled and Carlos could feel the cats claws moving at his clothing ‘so chic, so mature’ 

  
‘Cheshire I’m serious!’ he yelled and the startled cats body ravelled together as it slammed back into the tree, he rubbed his head the collision clearly having impact.

  
‘That’s you’re problem mutt’ his voice echoed and his body began changing between colours, the room glowing different colours, it felt like they were on drugs of some sort as his unravelled neck fell towards them and he screamed in a high pitched cartoon voice ‘you need to be silly!’

  
The landscape around them began to unravel, the floor cracking before chunks broke off and flew off, the four felt as though they were falling, falling down a rabbit hole. Their eyes had to adjust to the objects falling around them, flying above their heads and all around them. It took them a moment to realise that the objects around them were all personal to the group. Ticking clocks, broken bits of ships , rotting animal carcass’ and burned up pieces of paper with designs on them flew around them as well as many other things they did not catch or those they could not understand (one being a frog covered in eyes one of which opened like a mouth, yet instead of a tongue a frog leg popped out, they feared that image may never leave their heads). A crocodile even appeared to be swimming around Harry snapping its wicked jaw at the boys hand, and for all of his big talk about wanting a hook, Harry seemed rather frightened of the beast. But as he moved his hands frantically, jabbing his hook at it in an attempt to scare is off it dispersed, faded to nothing, and at that moment Uma planted her feet down and the scenery around them came to a sudden halt and returned to the original room.

  
‘Aw look, kitty’s lost his touch’ she mocked the cat a giggle slipping from her lips, she tended not to giggle like that, thought it made her look childish – she was clearly attempting to wind him up.

  
His face was blank, one Carlos had never seen. He was always showing expression – over the top as usual, but not in that moment. He looked almost robotic and Carlos wasn’t sure how to feel about it if he was honest. 

  
‘Let’s play a game, shall we?’ he said swiping his paw as the landscape once again changed, the floor now a massive chessboard with pieces to accompany it ‘chess? No too old school, no, no, no!’ as it had before the landscape beneath them changed, from large forests, to deserts, to a room full of mirrors. 

  
‘He’s absolutely bonkers!’ Harry whispered to the crew as they tried their best to keep their balance

  
‘He’s the Cheshire Cat’ Gil whispered, and they all took a collective sigh.

  
‘Ooh perfect’ he said as the landscape finally came to a halt

  
The four looked around at the new landscape, it was a rocky terrain that looked rather lifeless. Even the cat lay upon a rock, his tree no longer standing in the centre as it once had. The terrain however was not unfamiliar they all felt as though they had seen the place before but no matter their collective efforts, they could not put their finger on where they were at that moment.

  
‘Where the hell are, we?’ Uma asked turning in a circle so she could take in as much of her surroundings as possible, she didn’t like not knowing things, even on the isle she had informants about every tiny detail, so this must have been like hell for the young sea witch.

  
‘That’s the fun part… mystery’ the cat smiled

  
As though on queue a loud ear-piercing cry echoed in the sky and the four winced in pain covering their ears. The dark shadow soared above them, staying out of their view – most likely to obtain an advantage over them. It was a tactic they were familiar with, stay in the shadows until your prey is vulnerable, unsuspecting and then pounce. The cats eyes were moving around the sky, that stupid smile plastered across his face. 

**3 years ago:**  
The rotting ships had once again decided to grace the isle with their findings, Auradon had stopped shipping to the Isle years ago in an attempt to get rid of them, so most of the ships items were actual rubbish. The Isle people fell under the terrible curse of the barrier and that of immortality, they could not die – an eternal punishment. The only problem was they could still be injured, so the shipments of rubbish were essential, no one wanted to live an eternity of near-death starvation. 

  
Carlos had been sent by Kitty to get the first findings, anything of value essentially. There wasn’t much – a broken necklace which they could sell to the highest bidder (although he assumed it would be like every other piece of jewellery, a battle between the evil queen and lady Tremaine – the queen of hearts knew better than to interfere after the chaos of the last bidding), there was also a broken gun which they could sell to Gaston, however the last time a gun came up Ratcliffe had shown a keen interest. That guy gave Carlos the creeps, he was absolute scum.

  
He placed the scarce findings into his jacket pocket, ensuring it was the left pocket and not the right. Someone had cut a hole in his pocket a couple of weeks ago and everyday for a week he lost his findings. He was walking off of the docks, trying to avoid seeing his mother, who often came down to pick up findings as well. If she saw him, he would never get away. He turned to see if she had noticed him as the force of a young blue haired girl collided into him knocking them both over.

  
"You should learn to move out of the way, you runt!" she yelled at him wiping her tears, the smell of the girl was overpowering, fishy and not even the bearable kind. It was pure rotting fish.

  
"Well you should learn to wash your hair, squid face!" the boy showed a brief flash of fear across his face once realising who she was but quickly hid it behind a mocking grin, he need not fear with the Cheshire cat on his side. The blue haired girl began to laugh, not a wicked laugh either, she was laughing at his insult. 

  
"You're the De Vil kid, right?" she looked him up and down "clothes kinda give it away" 

  
"Carlos" 

  
"Uma" she said putting out her hand, Carlos shook it

.   
"Ursula, right?" Uma nodded "smell sorta gave it away" 

  
The girl flinched as though she was about to jump, but quickly withdrew. She clearly knew killing him would not be in her best interest, especially with Cruella so close by.  
"Let's go" she said jumping up and walking ahead, waving her hand for him to follow. 

  
"Where?" Carlos wasn’t exactly here on a fun day out, it was work.

  
" My turf" she said turning around "you in or not?" Carlos stood hesitantly afraid to move, the blue haired girl began to walk away, someone his age with turf? It was unheard of, only Maleficent’s daughter had turf, he then remembered the two were ally’s and it began to make more sense. Someone his age, an ally of maleficent it wasn’t an unappealing offer. He quickly followed and obviously startled the girl as she jumped when she noticed him beside her

  
“quiet on your feet huh? Could come in handy" and the two walked away off the docks, they'd never admit it, but they were happy to have each other. The dirty, disease written docks seemed a lot calmer now with company, and the two were so immersed in conversation they could not hear the frantic cries of the boy’s mother looking him to hold her coats, she had finally noticed him, but it was too late. 

  
“You own the docks, right?” he asked the young girl “not the loading ones but the others, further up the isle?”

  
“Yea” she nodded “but ask my mother and their hers, despite the fact she hasn’t gotten out of that tank in years, I worked for my turf, fought long and hard and I ain’t gonna give it up”

  
“Shouldn’t be a problem, you basically own the isle at this stage” she looked confused “You know, because of Mal? Your alliance?” she looked away from the boy

  
“Yea that ain’t a thing anymore” he could sense the hurt in her voice

  
“Hey, what happened to your ha-“

  
“Don’t!” she said her hand almost hitting him “I’ve lost a lot in the past hour runt don’t test me”

  
“Well always a chance to rebuild on your own” he said walking ahead of her, she hadn’t even thought of that, ‘on your own’ what a compelling thought.

  
They walked until they were met by a wooden shack, the smell of the girls hair had lessened the closer they drew, Carlos couldn’t tell if it was wearing off or if the place just had such a strong odour that it masked hers. The shack read ‘Ursula’s Fish ‘N Chip Shoppe’ Carlos made a hard swallow, he had heard stories of the sea witch, her ruthlessness. He hadn’t realised she was this cruel – if she would cook her own kind then what wouldn’t she do? They weren’t sea people, but they were sea creatures, that mean they were, in some way, related. Carlos shuddered at the thought as he walked through the swinging doors and into the restaurant. It was relatively clean… for the Isle.

  
“Well who do we have here?” A thick Scottish accent asked from across the restaurant.


	10. Curiosity Of The Cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, sorry i haven't updated my stories in a while, my mental health hasn't exactly been the best, between that and Coronavirus i haven't been able to bring myself to update these but i will definitely be updating more, maybe not exactly to a schedule but more frequently anyway, so enjoy !

A cold chill fell over the horizon, the four all stood back to back each facing a different direction, trying to pin down the creature or even try to figure out what the hell it was, there was no telling who or what his twisted little mind had brought down here with them.

‘Anyone figured out what it is yet?’ Gil asked, the sound of fear rising in his muscular throat.

‘Not a clue’ Harry said, he had begun to get jumpy at every noise and Carlos feared it might set Uma off, something they couldn’t afford.

Despite his concerns as he looked over to her face, she looked completely calm, her eyes shifting at the clouds above them, she was analyzing the situation, something he too should have been doing but he couldn’t help but admire her calmness. If she was afraid, she wasn’t going to show them she was their captain... no she was, past tense, their captain, Carlos had to remind himself of their deal, he was captain now. He had to take charge.

‘Standing here isn't doing us any good’ he whispered, as he saw the cat's eyes dart towards them, if only curiosity did kill the cat, he thought to himself.

‘You got a plan?’ at first, he thought her bluntness was a taunt, but he now realized it was a serious question, she knew they didn’t have time for half thought out plans, she was being logical.

He nodded his head and motioned his head towards a pile of rocks a few feet away, the three nodded as they all moved as one in motion, watching their steps so as to not draw attention towards themselves, they were out in the open, vulnerable, unaware of what or who they were facing – they didn’t need to draw any more attention to themselves. They shuffled slowly, edging towards the rocks, they remained silent not even looking at one another.

Their success did not last as Uma’s balance became undone as a rock caused her to fall thus causing the others too to fall, their bodies and their weapons crashed against the floor beneath them, and as they fell Carlos could swear he heard a gasp of concern from the rock where the Cheshire cat lay.

A loud screech echoed through the air and the dark clouds grew darker as a silhouette drew closer before large grey figure broke through the clouds and dived towards Uma as she held her ankle, she had clearly injured herself upon their fall and hadn't had the chance to run away as the others had.

It wasn’t smart, it was completely idiotic, he shouldn’t have done it. Harry realized this as he ran towards his former captain and picked her up in his arms and began to run from the creature diving towards them.

‘You blubber head! Are you absolutely insane?’ Uma cried in the boy's arms

‘Shut up and thank me later’ Carlos couldn’t help but smile, Harry was being a true knight in shining... leather. He shook his head after realizing what he was thinking, it was Harry, he wasn’t being heroic it was bigheadedness, that’s all.

He brushed off any remainder of the thoughts as the two ran behind the rock and joined Gil and himself, he set Uma down gently as Gil began to look at the wound.

‘She’s went over her ankle, not a sprain but still it’s pretty bad’ Gil said, the three looked up at him in shock, as much as they made fun of his intelligence, he was the most useful in their current situation.

Their attention was driven away from Gil as a loud crash shook the floor beneath them, as the three looked from behind the rock to see what had caused the earthquake like sensation.

‘No way’

‘Oh, for the love of Hades’

‘Wow’

‘What? What is it?’ Uma asked becoming irate as she could not get up to see what they were all commenting on.

‘This is absolutely mad even for him’

The three helped her up to look at the creature and she too was rendered speechless, she understood why they hadn't answered her. Behind the rock, shaking its large head as it rose from the ground lay the infamous, jabberwocky. It had crashed into the ground missing them, which made sense considering it’s large size, even the Cheshire Cat had been shaken off of his rock.

The four slowly and quietly lowered themselves behind the rock again, all completely stunned to silence now realizing how big the threat that had circled above them was.

‘That thing nearly crushed us to death’ Harry hissed frantically

‘I-It would have killed me if Harry hadn't got me’ Uma whispered, she looked scared, she never looked scared, it scared them.

Harry’s eye’s met with Carlos’ and the two stared at each other for a moment, Harry had always been there for Carlos, he was intimidating, he helped stitch him up after his mother's abuse, the concern that raised in his voice when he talked to him and all the things he said when he wasn’t around, he had Uma to thank for that knowledge. And Carlos, he had convinced Uma to let Harry in the crew when no one else wanted him around, he had widened Harry’s knowledge of the world, and despite the constant danger, he had found them a way off of this blasted rock. They were intertwined whether they wanted to admit it or not, but as they looked at each other in this moment, they thought of how they wouldn’t mind being completely honest with each other. Especially considering sudden death was drawing closer they thought of how they would love nothing more than to wrap in each other's arms.

Their gaze was broken by the sound of a whistle behind them, they turned to see the Cheshire Cat sitting in front of them. ‘Sorry to interrupt but I just thought I’d remind you, that you still have that to deal with’ he pointed at the Jabberwocky that was moving around the landscape pulling rocks aside in search for the four of them, as they turned to reply they found he had disappeared, that blasted cat.

‘Okay this ends now’ Carlos said standing up ‘let’s slay a Jabberwocky’


	11. The Proof Is In The Poem

Carlos stood up facing the beast, it was a large, several feet high, its body covered in grey shining scales the beast's eyes glew a pale white with no pupil present at least not one that Carlos could see. The beasts large tail swayed around knocking rocks out of the way without a care. What drew his attention the most however was the fangs and claws of the beast. Carlos remembered two lines from the infamous poem about the beast;

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!’

The poem had not lied about the danger of the claws and its jaws, they were as large as his head and looked as though they could tear through flesh in moments with no issue. He felt a hand wrap around his arm as he was pulled to the ground, crashing in the dirt beside Uma.

‘Are you absolutely bloody mad?’ Harry almost yelled, there was a hint of concern in his voice ‘I can't have you dying on me-… us, dying on us’ he had covered up his concern but Carlos had heard it and smirked

‘sorry I’ll be more careful next time’ he teased

‘how did he even get that down here?’ Gil asked his eyes following the beast's clumsy movements

‘never mind how he got it here what we should be concerned with is how we’re going to beat the winged bastard’ Uma said, a slight wince in her voice, she had moved too quickly

‘He took his vorpal sword in hand’ Carlos muttered the rhyme to himself, the others looked at him in confusion

‘What are you on about?’ Harry asked what they were all thinking

‘You know the jabberwocky poem?’

‘How does a poem help us?’ Gil asked, a valid question, he was full of surprises today

‘Because in the poem the boy beats the jabberwocky’ they still looked confused ’you know, ugh I cannot believe you are making me do this’ he complained as he began to say the poem;

‘Twas brillig, and slithy toves,

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All missy were borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jujub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

Long time the maxome foe he sought

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went glumping back

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come yo my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe’

‘Okay so besides proving how much of an absolute nerd you are, what exactly does that poem tell us?’ Harry asked looking rather impatient.

‘The boy had a sword, the vorpal blade’ he said looking at them ‘that's what we need to defeat it’

‘Sounds cool, where is it?’ the smiles faded from their faces, this whole Gil asking relevant questions thing was really starting to get on their last nerves, they hoped it wouldn’t continue for the rest of their journey.

They all peered around the rock, the landscape appeared to be never ending, it was completely void of life aside from themselves, the cat (wherever he was) and the Jabberwocky in front of them. The sword had to be here, the Cheshire cat was absolutely bonkers but he gave you a fair shot, that was the one thing you could always count on. The issue is your fair shot was never typically in a convenient spot, the vorpal blade being no exception. For once couldn’t the cat have decided to place it in plain sight? How Carlos put up with him for all that time before leaving to join Uma was something he could never understand. He could, however, understand the cats current dislike of him, he had abandoned him for a crew, leaving him lonely despite being told about his lack of friends and promising to be his friend that wouldn’t leave. Yet he did, he left for power and companionship right as the Cheshire cat was losing all of his, his world was crumbling and his only friend, his whole support system abandoned him to obtain the very thing he was losing... talk about rubbing salt in the wound, this was more like cutting someone ad emptying a whole salt shaker into the wound.

Despite that Carlos was confident kitty wasn’t bitter enough to not provide the help, if anything he would do it to spite him a sort of way of saying ‘oh look you needed me after all’ a sense of irony about the whole thing, he would make him come full circle. If he was going to leave him again then this time he was going to have to work for it, maybe it was a sort of therapeutic thing for him, a way to heal and move on or so Carlos hoped, he couldn't face another Jabberwocky situation if they actually made it out of this situation alive.

‘Kitty?’ Carlos hissed so as to not attract the attention of the beast who had drew closer.

‘Aw miss me did you?’ he asked appearing on Uma’s lap, Carlos could see she was trying her hardest not to strangle him for his sake, but he couldn’t tell how long it would last, ‘oh have you not dealt with that yet?’ he asked lazily turning to point at the Jabberwocky, barely raising his paw pointing an outstretched claw at the beast, yawning as though the action was very strenuous for him.

‘You know we haven't’ Carlos snapped becoming slightly irate with him ‘the vorpal blade where is it?’

‘Huh? The what?’ he asked admiring his claws seeming disinterested

‘The vorpal blade the one that kills the Jabberwocky’

‘Oh, that old thing, you mean you haven’t found it yet?’ he asked as though it had been lying right in front of him

‘If we had found it why would we be sitting here?’ Uma asked also becoming irate

‘I thought perhaps you were having a performance meeting, like after a tourney game’ they all looked at him in confusion ‘that will make sense to you all later’

‘The blade kitty where is it?’

‘When the one you care for most is in need of aid, so will come the vorpal blade!’ he reported rolling off of Uma and giggling non stop

‘What does that mean?’ Gil asked him

‘I don’t know, tell me when you find out? Toodles!’ his body began to fade

‘No!’ they all yelled but it was too late, he was gone.

‘Okay we need to find another way to do this’ Uma said with a sigh ‘otherwise we’re toast’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know it feels like this has been going on forever but i promise they will move on soon to meet another who will determine their fate haha, you'll get that later


	12. Believe In The Vorpal Blade

The trio looked at Uma with a look of what she read as disgust which was understandable given what she had just said, she regretted it the moment the words left her mouth, and if they made it out of this they would never let her live down the time she said ‘we’re toast’ when the threat of a deadly jabberwocky was behind them.

‘Toast? Toast?’ Carlos chuckled a domino effect which caused the other two to laugh as well.

‘You know now really isn’t the time’ she silenced their laughter while looking behind them, ‘so what’s the plan captain?’ she turned to Carlos, the word captain like venom on her tongue and Carlos definitely got stung by her addressing him by his new title. It was an all-time low for her, she really had nothing else left to lose, besides of course her life.

‘Well the cat was absolutely no damn help, so he wound it until it’s no longer a threat’ he informed them breaking the awkwardness that came from the silence of her addressing him as captain, they all nodded not answering him, ‘riddles and jabberwocky’s and stupid old cats god if we get out of here remind me to never visit wonderland’

The beast's heavy steps edged closer, shaking the ground beneath them as it edged closer to the rocks they were hiding behind. The four looked at each other knowingly and with a nod Harry and Carlos ran from the two sides of the rock hoping to confuse the beast, while Gil lifted Uma in his strong grip and ran with her to a safe place where hopefully the beast wouldn’t find her until they dealt with it, after placing Uma down Gil ran with the others.

The large beast turned to face Harry, it’s large head lunging forward as its jaw snapped at his body, the boy jerking backwards and tripping over landing on his back. The jabberwocky edged forward sniffing the area as its jaw opened again slightly as it snarled a long steam of saliva dripping on to the young pirate beneath his jaw, soaking the boy.

‘Hey freak show!’ the voice echoed across the rocks the beast turned several ways screeching as though it hurt the beast before it finally turned to face the owner of the yell, Carlos.

The beast let out a cry, its body moving towards him, it retracted its wings as though it were a peacock under threat. It’s wings were tattered and old, the frame still intact but the actual skin on the wing was faded and cut, one even had a hole in it, Carlos couldn’t for the life of him understand how it had flown but then again it was from wonderland, things worked in mysterious ways there well he didn’t know if worked was the correct term but things functioned... in wonderland terms at least that was.

But its staggered movements towards him were halted when a stone struck its head, with another cry and a large sniff into the air it moved its head finally turning to face Gil who had thrown the rock at the beast's head. It was sniffing... why was it sniffing, was it like when you smelled your hot plate of food before digging in or was it something more? Carlos lifted a rock and threw it behind the beast, its head cocking towards the sound of the rock's collision. It was blind, the damn thing was blind.

‘Uh you missed’ Gil said drawing the attention of the beast again, Carlos threw another rock behind it his head cocking again and following that direction. Carlos placed his finger over his lip as you would to a child when playing hide and seek, and despite their confusion the other two did not make a sound while the beast followed the sound of the rock its nostrils flaring. The two walked over to Carlos and in a hushed voice he explained the situation to them.

‘You’re sure?’

‘It’s the only reasonable explanation as to why we aren't dead by now, it can't see us’ they turned and watched its head move and its nostrils flare, it was still looking, which either meant that it was incredibly stupid which they doubted or that Carlos’ theory was correct.

The plan was simple, Carlos would attract the beast's attention (they had all agreed he was the most likely to aggravate the beast without being automatically killed like Harry would) and Gil would sneak onto a large rock and then he would pounce it and lay a few fatal blows with his sword and with any luck it would crawl away into whatever pit it came from and die alone.

Carlos taking a very Harry like approach as he began throwing rocks and taunting the beast with several insults some of them being ‘you big ugly brute’, ‘scale head’ and ‘dragon breath’. The ‘dragon breath’ really seemed to do the trick because the beast let out a screech but not like any they heard before, this one was longer, higher frequency and seemed a lot more dangerous. This all lined up with the beast's behavior, rather than looking like it did usually it was smashing rocks and breaking the ground beneath it as it lunged towards the white-haired boy. On cue Gil jumped from a rock onto the beasts back, an action which didn’t seem to please it given its reaction, it began doing movements that Carlos could only describe as similar to a horse bucking trying to get Gil off it’s back with little success. But little success was on both sides as despite several heavy blows to the back and neck not a single scratch was made on the heavily scaled beast.

‘Oh, for the love of Hades, come on, come on’ Harry muttered under his breath from a distance, two had been enough in the plan but he was practically praying at this stage that this would work.

But it was to no success, with a final jolt upwards the beast flung Gil off of its back into a rock, the blast seemed pretty hard but as much as Harry wanted to run and check on him, he had much bigger problems. The beast's attention was firmly and quickly returned to Carlos, and it wasn’t wasting any time. Harry ran like he’d never ran before hoping and begging he could get to Carlos before the beast did, the terrain didn’t side with him, in a second any hope of helping him flashed before his eyes as his body hit the ground. His screams were deafened by the absolute fear that washed over him and he couldn’t bare to look as the beast raised its head. But he couldn’t not look either, as he raised his head through blurry tear-filled eyes, he saw the beast and Carlos just like before but what was new was the cool feel of metal under his fingertips. It was a sword, the initials VB on the handle. Vorpal Blade. Harry giggled to himself, that blasted cat always showing up at the last minute.

‘Hey!’ Harry yelled attracting the beast's attention, its teeth bared, ‘come on big boy let’s go!’

He didn’t have to ask it twice, within seconds it was half running half flying in his direction at a rapid speed, the beast rose high into the sky and swooped down to attack him. Harry realized the small window of opportunity that was presented to him, he lifted the vorpal blade in his hand and raised it above his head and threw his arms forward letting the blade slip through his fingers as it pierced the neck of the beast and caused it to drop to the floor, Harry underneath its body.

‘Harry!’ the other three yelled in fear running towards the beast's corpse, even Uma had limped / ran to the beast in a search for Harry.

Despite the efforts of the three of them they were barely moving the heavy weight of the beast's corpse and were fearing that it might be crushing the young boy that had just saved Carlos’ life.

‘Well what do you think?’ the thick English voice of the cat came from behind them, they turned to see the cat painting a renaissance looking painting of the events that just happened, to be fair to him it actually looked quite good.

‘Looks great Kitty but a little help here?’ Carlos exclaimed gesturing to the Jabberwocky

‘Oh yes of course’ with a click of his fingers the beasts body was lifted off of the boy ‘it’s the least I could do, I’ve been trying to get rid of that monster ever since these catacombs opened, oh here’ he clicked his fingers again noticing the trio’s scared expressions, with that click Harry let out a heavy exhale and breathed heavily the trio gave him hugs and talked over one another in their excitement.

‘How did I do?’ he asked in a pained voice

‘You did amazing’

‘Fantastic’

‘Eh alright I guess’ Carlos said shyly, before he knew it Harry’s arms were wrapped around him, ‘uh Harry?’

‘Sorry pup I guess I’m just happy you made it’ he said with a goofy smirk releasing the boy from his grip ‘because you know this would be pretty boring without you’ he rubbed the back of his head in awkwardness.

‘Well congratulations, I guess I owe you’ he waved his paw and the room retuned to the way it had been a door appearing in front of them, ‘a real door I promise, cat’s honor’

They all smiled and nodded at him each walking towards the door and saying their goodbyes to him

‘Glad you made it kid’ the cat said licking his paw as they walked through the door.

His tree reappeared and he was perched on it, his eyes closed, the three had walked through the door but Harry was still standing there the blade in his hand his gaze drifting from the Jabberwocky's corpse to the cat laying in the tree.

‘Is there an issue?’ he asked without opening his eyes

‘I just wanted to thank you’

‘Well you’re welcome... for what?’

‘For the blade, you dropped it, there didn’t you?’ he asked, the cat's eyes were now open analyzing the young boy, ‘at the last minute to save Carlos, because you care about him even if you don’t want to admit it’

‘I didn’t have anything to do with the blade’ he reported ‘you were right about one thing though, I still care for him, he left me for another gang when he knew I had no one and I still care about him, probably because I know he’s better off with you guys, I mean look he practically got you guys off of this island, I would never have let him do that, I was too hard on him, he truly is better with you’

‘I don’t understand, if you didn’t put the vorpal blade there, then how did it get there?’

‘It’s like I said when the one you care for most is in need of aid, so will come the vorpal blade’ he smiled, ‘your love for Carlos brought the blade to you’

‘L-Love? I don’t l-love Carlos’ he stuttered

‘Of course, you do otherwise the blade wouldn’t have appeared to you’ he smiled his toothy smile ‘i don’t make the rules kid it’s just the way these things are’

‘You’re wrong’ he said walking to the door ‘I don’t love Carlos, I barely accept him as captain, that’s all this was me saving a captain, you got this whole thing wrong’ he slammed the door behind him as it faded behind him leaving the cat with the body.

‘The thing is, I never am’ the cat said lifting the Jabberwocky’s lips and pulling the two biggest teeth out, and holding a vial under the leaking gums collecting the liquid and placing a cork on the vial when it filled with the purple substance, ‘I never am’


	13. Confessions In The Catacombs

The door disappeared behind him as he slammed it shut in anger as the cat’s idiotic words echoed in his mind ‘your love for Carlos brought the blade to you’ that couldn’t have been right, there was no way. Even the whole ‘I don’t make the rules kid it’s just the way these things are’ thing didn’t sit right with him, of course the cat made the rules because he was the one who had set the whole thing up, whether it was self-serving or not, he didn’t stick around to ask. He turned to the other three who were staring at him, looks of relief on their faces before he could ask what was wrong with them they were on top of him, their arms wrapped around him and the four of them on the ground, this was becoming rather habitual a routine they would have to get rid of if this all went lopsided and they somehow were thrown back on that floating trashcan they had called a home, if not they could just stay here even the deadly turns around each corner of the catacombs were better than the toxic, abusive, hazardous and gang filled isle of the lost, how anyone could ever live with themselves after dropping a pile of people here was more than they could ever understand. At the very least they didn’t deserve to be there and they knew it, the issue was not everyone who lived there knew that, they had all given up on any chance of leaving the isle or having any other chance of a semi-normal life where being abused by your parents wasn’t a normality.

‘Right I get it you lot can get off of me now, you are crushing my ribs’ he complained being his usual self but he couldn’t help the smile that was plastered across his face as he looked at their tear filled eyes and childish smiles they too had plastered over their faces.

They got off of him, Gil sniveling like a toddler as he wiped his nose on his shoulder and helped Uma off of the boy, her ankle hadn't stopped her from jumping onto the boy in her excitement but she was still dependent on the others as much as she didn’t want to admit it. Carlos had turned away unlike the other two who were flooding with questions about where he had been and why he had taken so long, followed by Uma slapping him for ‘scaring the absolute shit out of them’. Harry walked over to the boy placing his hand on the boys shoulder, he heard a sniff as Carlos turned to the boy, despite his best efforts to hide it the boys eyes were still bloodshot with the tears that had clearly been coming out of his eyes, his nose and under eyes redness deeply contrasting against the boys pale complexion.

‘You great big stupid, hook handed asshole!’ his fists slamming against the boys chest, his head fell into the boys shoulder as he wrapped his arms around him, ‘you never think about anyone but yourself, don’t know why the other two were even worried’ he sniffed again trying to put up his defenses like usual when he became slightly vulnerable, this time was no different than any other.

‘Yeah those two are such idiots for caring’ his hand wiping a tear that rolled down the boys freckled cheek, ‘glad you would never do anything like that, because that’s stupid right?’

‘Yeah incredibly stupid, just like you not coming straight after us and making us think you were all dead’ he gave the boy a toothy smile, ‘sometimes it’s like I am the only one with any common sense or control over my emotions in this group, any wonder I became the captain’ he lifted the boys pirate hat from his head and placing it over his white hair, smirking at the boys shocked expression at the boys actions.

‘Hey are you two doing okay? Harry is alive right; he’s not bleeding out or something?’ Uma asked sarcastically as she limped over, Gil helping her walk much to her annoyance, ‘also were you two talking about us because being the captain doesn’t give you the right to shit talk us you know’ she said lifting the hat off of the boy and throwing it to the ground standing on it, the two looked better without it anyway.

The four stared at the wall where the door had just been before fading away, then to each other then back to the wall again, they had almost died, Uma had been injured and Harry had saved Carlos, the circumstances of his saving the boy unknown to everyone besides him and the cat. Now they stood in what appeared to be a long winding hallway in the catacomb, it was the perfect place for them to have a rest. Well not exactly, but at this stage they didn’t give a damn where they rested as long as there wasn’t anything trying to kill them there. They all sat in a circle, reminiscing over the events that had just occurred as well as cursing the Cheshire Cat and his madness of his revenge tactic.

‘What I’m wondering is why didn’t the Cheshire Cat didn’t just kill it himself’ another insightful question came from Gil, ‘at first I thought it was just to kill Carlos but he said it himself he’s been trying to get rid of that monster ever since these catacombs opened, how it got down here is another question’

‘Well I’m not sure about the whole him not killing it thing, but like I said before these Catacombs were made for the things that were even for dangerous for the Isle, blah blah, Uma says what's so bad why would they care, blah blah, we faced a bunch of dangerous things blah blah’ Carlos answered the boys question mocking the situation in the process but his face looked puzzled, ‘but I’m more interested in why he wanted to kill it? It’s a part of Wonderland’s history and his home, which makes me think he wasn’t telling us everything’

‘It doesn’t matter in the end the Cheshire Cat didn’t kill the Jabberwocky; Harry did’ Uma placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder giving him a reassuring smile.

‘He wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway’ they raised an eyebrow at the white haired boy, ‘it’s like the cat said when the one you care for most is in need of aid, so will come the vorpal blade, that flea bag didn’t love anyone and he sure as hell doesn’t care about anything or anyone’ Carlos’ gaze moved to the dirt floor in his sadness.

‘Love?’ the Cat’s words echoing once again in the boy's head, his love for Carlos had brought the blade to him so he could save him at least that’s what he had told the boy, and he was starting to believe it.

‘It doesn’t matter anyway like I said he didn’t care about anyone’ he said throwing a stone aside in his frustration.

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that’ Harry told him, remembering the cat's fond words of the boy, despite it all he still cared about him, much like he cared for Carlos, but not the same. Did that make what Harry felt love of did it make what the cat felt general liking and harry felt a slightly better version of that liking, he now realized how stupid the second sounded and realized it was more likely to be the first.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked turning to face the boy, his big brown eyes staring right through him, he still looked so innocent despite everything he had been through and everything he had done, when he looked at him with those, for lack of a better phrase, puppy dog eyes, Harry forgot everything bad about himself and everyone else because those big beautiful eyes made every dark thing in the world seem as pure as that face made him seem.

‘Nothing, I just meant don’t take things at face value is all’ he turned away from the boy but he could still feel his piercing eyes staring at him and the chill that came over him as he felt them leaving him as he looked away, clearly thinking he was a lost cause or something along those lines, if he thought it why wouldn’t Carlos think those things about him as well.

Despite the chill that appeared from Carlos’ eyes leaving him, the boy shivered under the continuous draft that seemed to move through the catacombs always at the worst possible moments, Uma seemed alright probably due to her coldblooded nature, he didn’t mean that as an insult more because of the fish thing and also because her and Gil had been in incredibly close proximity since she had hurt her ankle, he was parenting her, like functional parenting not lecturing your child about their constant mistakes and all of the things they did at their age, how they conquered kingdoms, overthrew princes and princes, enacted curses, started mobs, anything you could think of they had been lectured on. Harry now realized this probably didn’t qualify as parenting in Auradon and if they were somehow accepted they would be put through severe and extreme counselling sessions in which they would be diagnosed with mommy and daddy issues, abandonment issues, basically if it had the word issues in it they would have it as well as anxiety PTSD and all of those. Harry had been thinking this as a joke but he now realized he was probably right about the whole thing. Despite all of that Carlos was wearing his dark and heavy cloak made from the time he had slain Cerberus, he had almost forgotten that, but he couldn’t forget the look on the boy's face, he had never seen Carlos like that and he hoped he never would again, despite all of that the point was he had a warm coat, Harry was the only one without, he wrapped his dark red leather closed and hugged himself as he tried to sleep, he was tired, they all were.

Harry hadn't remembered falling asleep, his thoughts coming to a halt but quickly realized he must have been out for quite a while as his eyes opened slowly and the darkened catacombs had somehow gotten darker, he looked to Gil and Uma who were snoring loudly and quite ungracefully if he did say so himself, he looked in the spot Carlos had been lying and saw it was vacant. As he sat up, he felt the heat leave his upper body and as he looked down, he saw why, the dark cloak that had once lay on the white-haired teenager's shoulders now lay on top of him and had been while he had slept. That meant the boy had placed the coat on him to keep him warm, whether it was out of care or just to shut up his chattering teeth he wasn’t sure but he hoped it was the first.

The boy lifted the heavy cloak and placed it around himself as he slowly stood up trying his best to let the others sleep while he looked for the boy who had given him the cloak he was now wearing. He found him slightly down the hall sharpening a sword as he looked ahead straight down the hall alert, the noise of Harry’s steps causing him to jump and the cold touch of the blade was on his neck within seconds, he wasn’t hesitating, Harry would say it was cute if he wasn’t so terrified at that moment.

‘Next time you sneak up on me, I cut your throat got it?’ the blade left his neck as he turned to continue sharpening the blade, he was not the sweet little boy who had saved him from a three headed dog simply by talking to it nor the one who had been crying when he thought the boy dead and he certainly wasn’t the boy whose big brown eyes had pierced through his soul even when he wasn’t looking in them. No, he was more like the boy who stabbed a three headed dog whose guard was down and wore its skin as a trophy, more like the boy who had a look in his eye only reflected by his unhinged mother and wearing the skin much like she did and would have, something he swore he would never do.

‘Sorry guess I’ll be more careful next time’ he said as the boy walked forward with the boy sitting at his side, he looked upset, what could have happened since they went to sleep that would make him like this?, ‘thank you for the cloak, you must be freezing, I know I was’

‘It’s nothing’ his responses were blunt, and much like they were before he had found a way off of the isle, despite the fact that his partaking in the arguments and quick remarks Harry hadn't enjoyed this dynamic it was dysfunctional and they couldn’t deal with dysfunction down here, it could kill them.

‘You were having nightmares, again weren't you?’ despite not answering he stopped sharpening the blade giving him the answer he needed, ‘were they about your mother again?’ Harry remembered how nightmares about his mother had haunted Carlos when they were on the isle and Harry wouldn’t be shocked if they were coming back again after everything that had happened since they had left.

‘N-No they weren't about my Cruella, I haven't thought about her since we left actually’ Harry swallowed hard, he hadn't meant to remind him of her abusive tendencies and the nightmares they had caused, ‘they were about us, in Auradon... Harry I’m scared really scared, we’re going to somewhere unknown and we’re not even welcome there...’

‘Why would you be scared? After all you saved us from that three headed mutt, and lead us out of that whole beacon of souls, river Styx thing that happened’ Harry chuckled softly as he reminisced about his heroics.

‘You’re one to talk especially after the whole saving me from a whole ass Jabberwocky’ he laughed along with the boy before turning to face him, ‘how did you do that anyway? Where was the blade? Did Kitty... did the Cheshire cat give it to you or at least tell you where it was?’ Harry’s laughter stopped as his face fell, ‘is something wrong Harry?’

‘Do you uh, do you remember what the cat said?’

‘You mean his crazy little laugh filled riddle thing?’ Harry nodded in response, ‘something about caring for someone and it’ll appear when they are in aid? What about it?’

‘When the beast was going to kill you and I wasn’t going to make it, the sword it um... it appeared’

‘W-what?’

‘Yeah it was just there’ he swallowed both saliva and his pride as he looked the boy in the eyes, ‘that crazy cat said it was because I cared about you... because I loved you, you were the one I cared for who needed aid Carlos’

‘N-No Harry come on the Cheshire cat is insane, he threw a Jabberwocky at us and a half assed riddle, you can’t trust anything he says’ he had stumbled back a bit but was edging forward obviously hoping he would come to the same conclusion

‘He was right C, it was why I stopped at the beacon of souls, it enticed me it was going to tell me what I wanted to hear most’ a look of fear had flooded Carlos’ face, ‘it was your voice, it was your voice and it was calling out to me, because I think he was right Carlos, I think after everything we have been through, I’ve grown to care about you... to love you’

‘Harry I’m happy you saved me, and I like the idea that you no longer hate me, but I think you’re confused’ he got up looking down at the boy, ‘sometimes the line between love and friendship is blurred especially when you grow up the way we did, when we get even the smallest of comforts we aim to call it the love we never got as children or ever for that matter’

‘Carlos-’

‘We should go back before the others wake and worry’ he looked away, ‘i was stupid to sit here, they are just dream’s and nothing is coming after us’ he left him there, alone and all Harry could think was how he wished he had taken everyone's advice that they gave when he ran his mouth and held his tongue.


	14. The Tension of True Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys sorry it's taken me so long to update this story, I've had like no motivation for this story but i got a small spell of it there so enjoy, also this story is going to end soon i can see five chapters max left so the ending is coming y'all

The two walked beside one another not saying a word, they had been engulfed in a wave of awkward silence. They had never experienced a situation like this, the two of them could always break an awkward situation with a simple joke or even just a look but the chances of that happening were rather slim considering the two of them couldn’t even make eye contact never mind hold it for long enough to help their situation. The catacombs had always been dark and intruding, but in this moment the two of them only wished for light, for some morsel of hope. Harry’s heart lay back at the spot where he had confessed his feelings for Carlos, though it felt now as though it was in his throat, even if he built up the nerve to speak, he wasn’t sure he was able to. As for Carlos, he wasn’t even watching where they were going, if somehow the walls had changed or things had moved about, they wouldn’t have known, Harry had told him he liked him, that he loved him, how could they keep going after that? They continued in their silence the entire way to their crew mates, who they found awake and looking rather annoyed.

‘Enjoy your little walk?’ Uma’s voice was bitter with sarcasm as she looked between the two, her expression changed, she knew something was up, ‘next time you leave us at least leave a note or something, for all we knew you two got dragged off by something in this hell hole’

‘We thought you were dead!’ Gil’s usual deep voice was now high pitched with what they could only read as fear, Carlos opened his mouth to speak but Gil held up his hand to stop him, ‘we thought we were going to walk through these catacombs and find you dead, you can’t just leave without telling us! You made a big deal about being put captain Carlos, start acting like it...’ he got up and walked ahead of them, even Uma had been silenced by his speech, she shrugged her shoulders and followed the muscled boy leaving the two of them standing together.

‘Harry I-’

‘Yes?’

‘I-… I think we should go after them, wouldn’t want to upset Gil any further’ he let out a forced laugh, but Harry wasn’t laughing with him.

‘Whatever you say captain’ Harry hadn’t called him captain before, not like that, not like he couldn’t bear to say his real name, which right now was understandable. He had left him standing there and despite being the captain, being their leader, he was falling behind, behind a crew that no longer had faith in him.

They had gotten farther ahead of him than he suspected, no matter how far he walked he still hadn’t caught up with them, his lack of attention of his surroundings caused him to walk directly into a wall of the catacombs. He rubbed his head and turned back walking in the way he had come before coming across an entry tunnel, how had he managed to miss that? Walking down the empty tunnel there was still no sight of Uma and the others, had they gotten lost? Had he gotten lost? Or worse, had he left them behind and something terrible had happened to them? No. They were stronger than that, if anything came after them, they would have ended it in seconds, he had to find them. His thoughts had gotten him to walk into another wall, how was this possible? There was no way that he had went the wrong way twice, he slammed his fist at the wall only to lose his balance slightly, his fist had impacted nothing, there was nothing there anymore, what the Hades was going on?

The boy edged forward into the entry and as he was walking forward a loud crash caused him to stumble backwards, hitting a wall. What the Hades? He had just come from this way. Of course, they were in catacombs filled with magic, this place was from the outside world, but where? The scent around him had changed the deeper he went in, he couldn’t quite put his finger, or his nose for that matter, on what it was though. The smell was the last of his worries, what had made that crashing noise? The sound of steps edged forward as Carlos pulled a blade from his boot, he wasn’t dying in this hell hole. As the noise edged forward the boy pounced on whatever had been advancing on him, the sound of a thick Scottish accent yelling in pain gave him his answer.

‘Harry?’

‘Carlos?’ the boy almost fell backwards in shock, he had called him his name again, was it possible things were getting better, ‘can you get off of me please?’

‘Oh yeah sure’ the boy jumped off of his crew mate, had he seriously just asked him to get off of him? The old Harry would never have asked, he would have thrown him off, but he supposed he wasn’t the old Harry, he had changed, they all had.

‘You figured out where we are yet?’ the boy shook his head as the young Hook let a chuckle escape his lips, ‘and I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, it was actually Gil who figured it out, I know weird right? He said this place smelled funny, we all thought it did and then it hit him, they were roses, of course he’d only smelt rotten ones so it took him a while to come to that conclusion’

‘Roses? How the Hades do roses help us figure out where we are?’ he was growing frustrated, as well as the tension between the two of them Carlos hated not knowing what was going on, it infuriated him, the sooner Harry got to the point the less chance there was of Carlos stabbing him.

‘Think dummy what villain has an association with roses?’

‘Don’t call me du-… wait you mean the Queen of Hearts?’

‘Bingo, although perhaps let's not call her queen, you know she had that title stripped from her’ it was true, all the royals officially had their titles stripped when Maleficent came to power, to avoid confusion, but since she had been turned into a lizard upon a momentary escape the evil queen had regained control of the isle and put careful watch on the castle, the fact that they hadn't been caught going in was a surprise. As for Jay, Mal and Evie, no one had heard of them since the coronation.

‘So, what is this place, you still haven’t told me’

‘Her maze’

‘Her maze?’ The boy let out a laugh but his crew mate wasn’t laughing, not even a smile, ‘what is it?’

‘This isn’t a joke Carlos, remember why everything that we’ve faced is down here, they’re dangerous!’

‘How dangerous can a bunch of shrubs be?’ the boy lit a lantern holding it closer to the maze, Carlos now saw the walls were green and thorny, he threw a rock in the bush, at first nothing happened but then the bushes pulled the rock in growing around it, ‘wow’

‘Exactly, it might not look like much but we’ve figured out that the deeper we go into the maze the more dangerous those shrubs get, if the stories are true then if we manage to get to the center even the lightest poke would be the end of us, we would be grabbed by those bushes and never seen again, eternally their fertilizer’

‘That’s, scary... wait where are Uma and Gil?’ it had taken the young De Vil this long to realize that the other two had not come behind the boy, he was really a rotten captain.

‘Yeah, that’s the next issue’ another problem really? ‘not only does this maze suck us in, it moves, I took too long and got separated from them, and then... then I found you’ his voice had gone soft, as though he was happy at the thought, he hoped he was.

‘Harry I’m sorry’

‘You’re... You’re what?’ he couldn’t tell if the boy was angry or happy.

‘I didn’t mean to upset you, because I-’

‘Carlos, I don’t need your pity you don’t need to pretend for-…' he was cut off by the young white haired boys soft lips meeting his, his eyes fell closed as they embraced one another, the world around them stopping momentarily, the young boy broke away gently.

‘Does that seem like I am pretending?’ the boy asked, smirking at the pirate who’s face had an expression of shock and arousal on it.

‘N-No’ he couldn’t bring himself to say anything else.

‘We should go find them... I’m sure they miss us very much’ he joked causing the boy to laugh.

‘Oh, terribly I’m sure Uma would love to see her replacement and her best friend locking lips’ they had broken the awkwardness between them after all that time, things were going back to the way they were. With one noticeable exception. The two boys' hands were locked together as they began to venture through the maze.


	15. Roses and Redemption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> couldn't be me updating a story twice in one day... watch me disappear for three months after this.

The maze continued to twist and change around them, the deeper they ventured into it the more noticeable it was. It was like the maze had been toying with them, attempting to scare them. The fear tactics of the overgrown weed only made them more determined to get out of it, the only issue was trying to find Gil and Uma, getting out was the second, Auradon was the endgame. Harry’s grip tightened every time there was a noise around them or something went bump, he was a massive baby, but Carlos wasn’t complaining, he quite enjoyed the fact that he made the boy calm down, he did the same for him. Despite that the thought of Uma and Gil lingered on his thoughts but not the idea of finding them, more what they would think about him and Harry. Ever since they had gotten together, they had all pretty much been inseparable, even when he and Harry were at each other's throats they knew they cared, and while they rarely said it, they showed it through actions. Whether it was Harry walking Carlos home and stitching him up, or Carlos sewing Uma new clothes, or Gil taking over the fish shop because he was a surprisingly good cook and then making them all dinner, or Uma always making sure they got the best of everything due to her mother’s control of the docks, they always showed their care through actions, but now they were separated. On top of that the crew members had always been equal, even when Uma was captain, now even when Carlos was captain, they all pretty much were equal, but now with the two dating it would change that, they were an unlikely pair to say the least with Harrys flirtatious nature towards Uma and Gil’s over protectiveness of Carlos it was clear who the obvious pairings were, but here they were defying all expectations. They weren’t worried they would be heartbroken, no, if anything there were only feelings of comradery on each side not love, but with Harry it was different, it was more than that, and they feared that may make them somehow feel inferior, and that was not something they wanted to do.

They stopped at a dead end and as they went to turn it opened before them, taking their chance they ran through it, the gap closing very narrowly behind them, had they waited a moment longer they would be goner. The smell of roses intensified the further into the maze they went, and so they knew they were going the right way. Another hint was the frustrated muffling from the direction of an entry way that could only belong to one person, they ran through the entrys and turns each closing behind them narrowly the time frame getting smaller, as they came to the last they jumped through and Carlos’ chain got caught on the bush as it began to pull him back into the bush, Harry pulling on his foot as the boy screamed, from the corner of his eye he saw the blue haired girl and muscular boy appear helping the boy pull, but the chain was beginning to choke him, Uma threw him knife as he cut the chain and they pulled him towards them, his chain disappearing in the bush. They were all panting heavily as they looked at one another in both delight and anger.

‘You... You helped me?’ He didn’t mean for it to be a question, but deep down it was, he thought they were angry at him and perhaps Uma would like her old position back.

‘Yeah, well you have a fireproof cloak on, that... that could come in handy’ she was reluctant to say anything nice about him for obvious reasons but she was talking to him so that was a start, ‘so you found Carlos?’

‘Yeah, I did’ he held the boy's hand and Gil and Uma looked at one another in shock as if to see that they weren’t hallucinating, ‘we kissed’ #

‘Typical of you two to choose the absolute worst time to make a connection’ she couldn’t help but let a smirk appear, she was happy for them, of course she was, they had no idea what they were worried about.

‘Look at you two love birds, the roses got to you huh?’ the muscular boy lifted the two of them up into his arms, he clearly wasn’t mad at them anymore.

‘Can we please just get out of these catacombs already? I am so done with this place’ they all agreed with Harry’s suggestion and once Gil set them down, they stood together, ready to take on anything that came their way.

The boys retold their story of romance, how Harry had told him his feelings, Carlos ignoring the idea completely, how they kissed everything, the biggest surprise to the two was the vorpal blade and the beacon of souls, Harry attributed them to his discovery of his true feelings for their captain, whose fur coat he now had around his shoulders, if anything good had come out of this then it was the feelings, they discovered they had for one another. The entry in front of them looked different, it was still a hedge but it had a red heart of roses in the middle, Uma lifted a rock and threw it at the rose as the door carefully untangled revealing an entrance for them to go in, they looked at one another uncertainly before all nodding in unison, all four of them holding hands as they walked in. Harry gave Carlos his Cerberus cloak back saying he needed it more than Harry did and once he put it on, they all locked hands again walking in a line. They were now in a massive square room, still made of hedges but different than the rest of the maze.

‘I think we’re in the centre of the maze’ Uma said gaining the attention of the rest of her crew.

‘What makes you say that?’ Harry asked, assuming she was right.

‘That’ they followed the direction her finger was pointing and saw that in the middle of the room lay a rose bush shaped in a heart, unlike the roses they had just seen the roses on the bush were white, ‘she’d hate this’

‘What why? They’re the best things in this maze’ Gil said looking at the bush as they all edged forward slightly.

‘Don’t you know the stories? Her card knights planted white roses instead of red, her favourite, they attempted to paint them red but she found out and cut off their heads, you never see those guys, wonder what happened to them’ her voice echoed through the maze when she turned to Gil yelling ‘don't!’ his finger was close to the rose bush but had stopped after her scream.

‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ ‘Gil no!’ her screams were pointless as his finger touched the white rose, to her surprise nothing happened, ‘see nothing-…. Ow!’ he lifted his finger; he had pricked it on a thorn and the blood was dripping onto the white roses as he placed it into his mouth.

The blood that had stained one of the roses began to spread to the rest of the roses on the heart shaped bush causing them to turn a violently dark blood red, the Queen’s favourite. The four backed away re-joining each other as they held hands once again, the bush grew bigger as they looked at each other in fear.


	16. Moments in the Maze

Holding each other's hands, the four looked at the bush in front of them, it was directly from wonderland, that made it extremely dangerous. At least the cat gave them some hint as to how to get out of their situation, they had no hints, no tips of how to escape the maze they found themselves in. There were no exits anymore, just them, the four walls and the bush in front of them. The ground beneath them began to shake as they held on to one another for balance as the dirt began to crack as roots broke through growing around them, Gil’s hand pointed to the large rose bush without speaking, they could all see what he was talking about, the roses had begun to expel some sort of gas, a sickly pink that each rose on the bush and began to fall around them. They attempted to walk backwards to escape the ever-advancing gas that surrounded them but in a matter of seconds they were but an inch away from the maze’s hedges, they couldn’t tell which they would rather face, the suffocating nature of the shrubs or the unknown nature of the gas.

But they decided to stand their ground, fingers still intertwined, if they died then they would do it together. They looked at one another giving half smiles, they were all terrified but none of them would let the others know it, they had to be strong, but they didn’t have to say it, they could see it in each other's eyes but they still kept their little smiles as the gas drew closer falling upon them. Their grip broke from each other, their hands now laying at their sides, the room was no longer fragrant but damp and disgusting, and all Carlos could smell now was the heavy scent of Harry’s god-awful cologne that filled the air worse than that stupid gas.

‘You stink, you know that? At least the roses were somewhat bearable, that piss you call cologne however is absolutely unbearable, is your nose not working or do you enjoy smelling like a rotting squid?’ Carlos spat at the boy standing behind him, standing back slightly holding his nose in disgust.

‘Well of course you would notice the smell mutt, your little doggie nose doesn’t like my cologne? Too bad, grow up and get over it you two toned, freckled, sorry excuse for a human’ the young Hook poked his chest attempting to agitate the young boy.

‘God how predictable the star-crossed lovers are in a little spat, I would say I am surprised but honestly you two can’t commit to an article of clothing never mind a relationship’ the sarcastic tone of their previous captain came as she laughed tauntingly.

‘You guys there is no need for this, we can all get along’ they all turned in unison to groan at his positivity.

‘Okay Gil, I am going to say this slowly so your tiny brain can comprehend it, stop with the positivity and clever insights!’ Uma grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to her eye level, ‘you are as dumb as two rocks, and that is being generous, you may think that being in here and giving all these insights makes you better than us but in reality you are lucky to be in this crew with us and if Carlos did not steal my title as captain I would drop you faster than a rotting tomato’

‘I’m sorry, stole your title? If I remember you bet it and i managed to win that title, with ease might I add, it’s not my fault you don’t have the braincells to keep your power, is it any wonder Mal always won over you, shrimpy’ the last word of his insults was the final straw, Uma lunged at the boy tackling him, Gil doing the same to Harry out of angered defense at his comment on how he wanted to see the two of them rip each other apart.

The two rolled around, fists meeting faces and knees meeting chests, Harry was a surprisingly good match for Gil, what he lacked in muscle in comparison to the boy he made up for in his general madness and blood lust which were more than enough to keep up with him. As for Carlos and Uma their fighting was much more dangerous, they were no longer on the floor rolling in battle like Harry and Gil, they were now standing, blades in hand as they began swiping at one another in anger. It was as though something had come over them, the anger inside of them was boiling hotter and hotter the more they lunged, with every insult and every punch and every blade that was swiped at each other it grew and grew until it bubbled over in deadly bloodlust, perhaps the queens beheading thing had a point, the idea of slicing Carlos’ head of seemed quite enticing to Uma right now and Gil was prepared to Harry’s head off with his hands, the feelings were mutual all around in the maze.

‘You were never a good captain you know that? You always treated us like shit!’ he swung his leg knocking her to the floor standing over her and placing his foot on her chest pressing down, ‘now you’re in the dirt, where you belong’

‘Uma!’ Gil got up from wrestling with Harry, throwing him back as he ran towards the two knocking him off of her as the two began wrestling, as she got up with blade in hand in attempts to throw the knife at Carlos, Harry tripped her over again, making a smart comment about how good she was getting at being knocked over.

‘Gosh Gil, why don’t you get out of Uma’s ass, and think for yourself for once?’ Carlos headbutted the boy knocking him backwards slightly, ‘of course you would need to process something in that pea sized brain huh? Guess not everything is big in the Gaston family, we know for sure one thing isn’t’ he teased placing a hand on the boy's groin before kicking him in his privates.

‘Gosh Carlos let’s not pretend you didn’t have a thing for me, but I guess that captain guyliner is more your thing now huh?’ the muscled boy elbowed him in the stomach causing the boy to cough up blood, he was pretty sure he had broken a rib in the process knocking the boy to the floor, ‘guess you’ll get to be under me thought, just not in the way you wanted’ kicking the boys ribs again.

‘You’ve needed a good kicking since you were dropped on this Isle you sorry wxcuse for a pirate’ Uma said swiping as the boy cutting him slightly as they fought in return.

‘Gods for a daughter of Ursula you are very easily manipulated’ the deep accent from behind them came, Uma turned throwing Harry over her shoulder in the process standing on his chest, as she looked at the cat that had appeared again.

‘Oh, queen of hearts, wonderland, of course you are here’ she said rolling her eyes looking at the cat, ‘so what do you want? Here to watch as I crush his ribcage’ she pressed down further, Harry groaning in pain

‘Oh yes, I forgot about that’ the cat floated closer to her, with a flower in hand shaking the pollen off of it onto her head, her eyes previously filled with hate now looked rather confused, ‘better?’

‘Cat? What are you doing? What the hell is happening? Why are Gil and Carlos fighting? And why on earth am I crushing Harry’s ribcage... not that I’m complaining but...’

‘The queen of hearts designed this maze, the bush sprays a toxin of hatred ironically rather than love, with every insult, the hatred grows until you kill one another, quite ingenious actually’ he said smirking at her as she processed the information that was being given to her.

‘So how do we stop this and get out of here?’

‘Kill the bush’

‘Going to need a little more information cat’

‘The roses are the source of power and life, you need to cut them down’ Uma lifted her blade out looking as though she would advance on the bush, ‘not that simple, all four need to be cut at the same time, so all of you need to do it together’

‘And how are we going to do that, until a minute ago we all wanted to kill one another, and I’m still considering it’ she said looking at the boy below hers pained expression.

‘You’re the daughter of Ursula, I’m sure you’ll make your voice heard’

‘What does that even mean? Don’t you have any of that pollen left’ but as she lifted her head to look at the cat, she saw he was gone, ‘make my voice heard? What did he mean by that?’

Inspiration struck. Lifting her foot from Harry’s chest she ran from him to the edge of the maze throwing rocks at the other two as they looked at her advancing forward each of them hurling insults at them as she did the same, the insults no longer had an effect on her because of the pollen, but it clearly made an impact on them as they all lunged towards her, she held her seashell necklace up in the air as the boy's voices grew softer and softer as the shell glowed brighter. The boys clawed at their throats their mouths opening but no sound leaving, she had no idea this would work and considering she had not got them to sign a contract or made a spell for that matter she could only assume it wouldn’t last very long, she had to take her opportunity while it lasted, the loss of their voices seemed to calm them slightly, they were no longer trying to kill each other or her so that was a start.

‘Listen pea brains, I know I’m not your captain anymore but since I have Carlos’ voice I am momentarily in control, we got to climb that bush and cut those four roses at exactly the same time or we are stuck in here and as much as I enjoy seeing you lot attempting to rip each other apart its not in my best interest, so we’re doing this, any questions?’ Gil went to open his mouth but Uma spoke over him, ‘Good let’s go’

The four walked together once more hand in hand as they began to climb the bush, it had now grown to the size of a tree, they were using their blades, one in each hand to climb the large bush, if one of them slipped they pulled them up, each aiding one another. The hatred that bubbled in them moments ago had seemed to bring them closer in an ironic twist, they were working together better than they ever had, perhaps the cat, as little as he might have had to do with it, was actually good for the team. However, if they saw him again, Uma would have a stuffed cat hanging on her wall when they got to Auradon. As they got to the flowers each attempted to cut through, they were like thick vines. Thankfully, they managed to cut through them at the same time and the bush around them began to rot as they slid down it quickly as it collapsed around them.

The sound of echoing boos surrounded them and as they looked up and now noticed that in what appeared to be a colosseum like seating arena was the Queen’s personal card guards booing at them in anger. They fell down in a way that looked as though actual cards had fallen, they never quite actually understood the biology of those cards, they were a mystery. Despite this the cards surrounded them as the entrance opened in the maze the four nodded at one another not speaking as most of them couldn’t as they ran through it, the cards followed but only some of them managed to follow them through, the rest were trapped in the roots of the maze. At that moment Uma had an idea, the four of them worked together pushing the cards into the bushed through varying tactics of tripping them up, hiding and turning them against one another, for high security threat guards, they really had no brain cells between them, did they have brains? The biology still confused them. Once the final knights were taken care of the four exited the maze leaving it behind them, the maze rotting as they left and a slate of stone falling behind them closing off the entry to the maze.


	17. Forbidden Fate

The four looked at one another they had defeated the knights and the maze itself but some of the things they had said were not the kindest, being kind had never been their strong suits, but they were never that mean to one another. They stood looking at one another, their mouths opening and closing for several minutes no words leaving them. They sat on the floor looking at the closed maze which was now covered by the same stone that the rest of the catacombs were made of Uma made the first move to try and gain some peace.

‘Look I know we all said things we regret and that we didn’t truly mean, but they clearly still hurt us and we should own up to that so I’ll go first’ she closed her eyes and gave a deep exhale before continuing, ‘Carlos I know I made that agreement to relinquish my title to you, and to be honest you’ve done a better job than I ever could, look you’re getting us off this rock, as for you two well I'm completely and utterly happy for you because let’s be honest we all saw that coming as for anything else I’m sorry’

‘Well, look at that, sushi roll apologised’ the three began laughing causing frustration to grow in the young girl, ‘sorry Uma, we appreciate the apology, let’s just move on okay?’ they all nodded in agreement with Gil’s idea and moved through the catacombs, Harry and Carlos holding each other's hands and Uma on the shoulders of Gil like a child, they were almost out of here and they had never been happier than in that moment.

The four of them laughed and joked about the ridiculousness of the maze and debated on the anatomy of the cards until they came to another door blocking their path. This door was different than the others, it was still made of stone but had an inscription on it, they couldn’t quite make it out it looked like a straight line, they couldn’t understand what had found but pressed it opening the door as they entered the dark room. There were slight glimmers in the darkness that they couldn’t make out, Carlos tripped causing a bright golden light to shine through the room.

‘Where the heck are, we?’ Uma asked looking around them as she placed her hand over her eyes trying to see past the light.

The source of the bright light was quite the puzzling one, across the room was a thread of string that must have been several hundred meters long, it glowed brightly and appeared to be moving across the room, where too was the question they could not determine, Uma touched the string before being flung back, they couldn’t touch the string, that made sense. The four of them manoeuvred themselves through the string trying their best not to touch it, when they did occasionally, they moved back slightly but continued onward, when they made their way through the light around them glowed brighter, they helped one another up as the light dimmed slightly and they saw three silhouettes as their thick voices echoed in the room, each speaking one by one.

‘Young travellers you have made a great journey to join us here’

‘There hasn’t been a villain in the catacombs for years’

‘But we predicted this important date’

‘When you four teens would greet the Fates!’ their final line was spoken in unison as their faces came clear to them.

The three sat on stones each weaving the golden thread between their fingers, around them the sounds of voices echoed as though millions of people were speaking in hushed whispers, they couldn’t quite understand it. The fates were not as they had been described in the stories, they had clearly been confused with the Graeae, who were hag-like, and each shared an eye, but in truth the fates did not look like this at all. The three fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos were rather youthful, looking as though they were in their early twenties, young and youthful, of course this was not true as they were centuries old. Their white hair appeared to shine like the thread, in each they held a varying hair piece, roses, jewels and what looked like a crown, they were quite mesmerising.

‘I hate to question them, but do they seriously have to rhyme like that?’ Gil whispered in a hushed voice.

‘I sense your doubt young Gaston, we promise our interaction won’t take long’

‘The thread will weave as we discuss the reason you are here with us’ the thread disappeared around them, likely to Mount Olympus where they usually resided.

‘Hold our hands and we will show, the future you will come to know’ the three held out their hands and the four took them, they all closed their eyes as they felt the world around them change.

They opened their eyes and looked around them, they saw the shining sun around them, they were in Auradon. They sat on the grass, the four followed them to the floor as they waited for the events around them to change. As they sat beside them, their hands still connected the scenery changed drastically, they were still in Auradon but it was not the same. The grass had rotted as had the rest of the nature and everything was on fire, the buildings destroyed. The fates broke the connection launching them back to the catacombs, their eyes glowed a bright white as they spoke in unison once more.

‘In moments soon it is predicted,

The destruction that will be inflicted,

The world we know will surely fall,

If we allow you past this wall,

Villain kin like those before,

Shall wage on us eternal war’

‘So, it’s hopeless then, we really are no better than our parents’ Uma sighed falling to her knees in disappointment.

‘A word of caution to you four,

While you take part within this war,

The cause is where the rose shall lie,

Deceit is in high supply’

‘What does that even mean?’ Harry complained as their eyes returned to normal and they shook their heads.

‘We cannot reveal anymore, now it is time we leave you four’ before they could ask what they meant by that the Fates waved their hands as the threads appeared once more and they pulled on it. The world around them began to unravel like a tapestry, as the fates echoed their goodbyes and disappeared to Mount Olympus as they fell through the floor screaming as the world around them turned blank and their vision fell dark.

The four rubbed their heads as they looked around them to see what the Fates had caused to happen as they looked around them, they saw the once familiar surroundings of the vision they had shown them, except it was no longer fuzzy like a vision, Uma placed her hand down, the flowers were real.

‘Hello travellers, we have been expecting you’ they turned to see the face of King Benjamin greeting them, as he held out his hand to greet them, they looked at each other uncertainly. They had done it; they had made it to Auradon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally done !!!


End file.
